Former Energy Minister: Expensive coal gas, we can cover it, American gas creates stability and costs less

It has criticised energy sector politicisation and has demanded that projects for American gas, solar energy, wind power and rehabilitation of existing thermal power plants be treated as complementary and not as mutually controversial.

Ceku said Kosovo urgently needs increased production capacities, praising that involvement in American liquid natural gas projects (LNG) would bring economic and energy benefits to the country.

The energy problem in Kosovo dates back early. Unfortunately, it is extremely politicised that it should be out of the political orbit, because it has to do with economic development to some extent and strategic interests. None of the projects should fight each other. The Balkans lack tens of thousands of megawatts of electricity. The market is inevitable in the Balkans and in Southeast Europe. We can develop blocks and rehabilitate Kosovo A or B, we can have energy from the sun and wind, we can have new thermal power plants, we can still get that from the lignite, and however what's from the gas, it means from American gas”, he told Online Economy.

According to him, involvement in American gas projects would create greater energy stability and would be less costly than other alternatives.

So I don't see this politicisation helping the energy sector. Even the key to American gas, creates a stability, a rapid development, has less costs than the gasification process, which is a long and super expensive process, which we with the Kosovo budget cannot cover. So I'm calling that energy projects shouldn't fight each other. There's enough room for everyone. The American gas has a good advantage because it has Skopje near Thessaloniki, Vlora is very close, it is much cheaper and can influence much faster the development of this sector”, he said, for Online Economy.

Ceku said gasification may remain an option for the future, but according to him, the US gas project presents faster and more convenient solutions.

The requirement to see gasification, therefore, may come to the end of other projects that can be accomplished where to keep Kosovo provided for its domestic resources, but given that it is an expensive project, given that there is little experience, there is something in the United States, in China and other countries, I think this project involving the American gas project is financially, financially, fast, along with other projects. I'm saying once again it's very logical to push projects with different orientations and political and other things”, he said.

He also criticised the provisional approach of institutions to energy projects, saying the country has paid high costs for energy import.

That loss is visible. We've paid tens, hundreds, billions of euros in energy purchases, at expensive energy prices. Kosovo may be a very good development state in the energy sector, and this concrete stance of the government in relation to other projects undermines Kosovo's economic future and the country's economic development. See countries in the region what they're doing to access gas, that's a maximum effort to get into American gas, and it should also be pushed into those other projects, as we told the rehabilitations by wind, with solar energy”, he said.

Speaking of the country's energy needs, Ceku said Kosovo needs about two thousand megawatts of internal capacity and cannot rely solely on existing thermal power plants.

“We can produce energy because the market is non-fatable. The market is unspoiled. Today the world is behaving about energy problems. The war in Ukraine, the Russia issue, developments in Germany that have restored the thermal power plants. It means something we need to use the space that has been created for Kosovo. It's a very good space. That's why they shouldn't hesitate. If they want to do the gasing, let them do it, because we need it. We need two thousand internal megawatts, about two thousand we need. We cannot stand alone with Kosovo A, because there are costs, but there are difficult developments, old thermal power plants, major pollution. It means they shouldn't get involved in exclusion of projects. Put the gas in, then comes gasification and other projects”, he said.

Kosovo is the only country in the Western Balkans that is not involved in projects that expand the energy impact of the United States in the region through liquid natural gas projects (LNG).

Kosovo's incumbent government, led by Albin Kurti, has expressed more interest in “gasing local coal”.

This [charging coal] we can do with an American company, for example,”, Kurti stated earlier.

The American Embassy in Pristina has repeatedly called for Kosovo's involvement in the US LNG project.

Jobwork in this embassy, Annu Prattipati, has declared in early June that Kosovo is failing to meet increased energy supply requirements, citing Kosovo Customs data, under which the country has spent 735m euros on importing electricity from neighbouring countries in the past four years.

According to these data, energy imports increased from 142m euros in 2024 to 259m euros in 2025.

Prattipati has estimated that if prices and energy demand continue to rise, Kosovo will increasingly depend on the energy supply of neighbouring countries.

Meanwhile, Albania, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina have entered important initiatives with American companies and with the US on expanding the gas network, including projects aimed at reducing dependence on Russian supplies. /EO/