Mihajlovic: Despite the crisis in Ukraine, Serbia has enough natural gas

Our country, the minister recalled, has been using another route through Bulgaria since last year, which has nothing to do with the the route through Ukraine

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Mining and Energy Zorana Mihajlovic says that "the political crisis in Ukraine will affect the energy and financial stability of the entire continent, but Serbia has provided sufficient gas supplies for both its economy and households."

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She added that expansion of domestic gas storage facilities, as well as a regional crisis plan and strategic gas reserves will ensure stability in the gas sector in Serbia and in the countries of the region, regardless of the crisis in Ukraine.

"This is really a serious crisis and a threat of great powers that will affect the whole world. It's not just a geopolitical issue, nor an issue of an energy and politics-driven conflict but a question of how the world will develop in the coming decades," the minister said, according to a statement from her cabinet.

"Energy is the number one issue"

"The conflict in Ukraine will affect the entire continent, and the prices of gas, but also other energy sources and energy in general, according to all analyses and forecasts - they will not settle, nor return to the level before 2021. This will further mean new financial crises and problems, as both the World Bank and the IMF are warning," Mihajlovic said, adding that "Serbia's priority is diversification of gas suppliers, expansion and construction of new underground gas storage facilities in the country, as well as creating a regional crisis plan and strategic reserves of this energy source."

"As for Serbia, we have made important decisions, we have two directions of gas inflow. Previously, we had only one direction of gas coming through Ukraine and Hungary, and we were very vulnerable, and if that had remained the only option, we would be in serious trouble," she said.

She recalled that last year Serbia got another route, through Bulgaria, which does not touch the route through Ukraine. "My question is why we hadn''t worked on expanding the storage before, I wrote about it back in 2002 and 2003. There has been a cavalier atmosphere, not much thought was given to investments, but we will work on it now," the minister added.

"Serbia has sufficient quantities at the moment, we have a crisis plan, we know what to do and I do not expect will suffer the consequences when it comes to supplys, but will suffer financially, because we cannot influence market prices.

Our idea is to try to create joint strategic gas reserves together with Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, and we spoke about that with the Bulgarian prime minister recently. We are too small, we need to act together," she stressed and reiterated that works to build an interconnection with Bulgaria are financed by the EU and that everything is done according to the rules and procedures of the EU and the EIB.

(Telegraf Biznis)