Serbia Reaches New Gas Supply Agreement From Russia

Vuciq announced the issue after a telephone conversation he conducted with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The new agreement is in three months and, according to her, Serbia will be able to import 6m cubic metres of gas from Russia.

At a media conference, Vucic said the price of gas would be between $320 and $330 per 1,000 cubic metres. He praised these conditions as a highly favourable “”, for which he thanked Putin.

The short-term agreement reached in December expired on 31 March.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Serbia has begun to reduce dependence on Moscow gas, but still more than 80 percent of its needs are covered by Russia.

This dependence on Russia, as the Hungarian energy expert Attila Holoda estimates for the Balkan Radio Service Free Europe, is conditioned by both economic and political factors.

However, he considers that at this moment the economic factor remains more direct.

The long-term Russian “Gazi has been supplied to Serbia with relatively favourable conditions, while existing infrastructure and trade relations make this option easier in the short term”, he stressed.

At the same time, according to Holodas, the important is the political dimension in which Belgrade tries to maintain stable relations with Moscow, clearly balancing in its relationship with the EU.

The European Union is trying to reduce Russia's revenues from the energy it uses for the war in Ukraine, and plans until January 1st 2028 to stop the total import of Russian oil and gas.

The gradual disruption of Russian gas import to EU territory has started early in the year and is not worth transiting Russian gas to third countries.

However, the EU expects from Serbia, as a candidate country for membership, to gradually harmonise with all decisions.

Serbia is the only EU membership candidate country in the Western Balkans that has not imposed sanctions on Russia due to Ukraine's invasion.

Serbia already buys gas from Azerbaijan, via Bulgaria, while the construction of the pipeline towards northern Macedonia, which would enable access to liquid natural gas from Greece, is expected to start this year. / REL