Serbia will purchase gas from Russia cheaper by 12 percent, under a long-term agreement on gas supply which should be signed in March next year, General Manager of Srbijagas Dusan Bajatovic said late Monday.
The agreement, which will be in effect until 2012, should be signed in March, since before that a long-term agreement between Serbia and Russia should be ratified in the Serbian parliament in late January or early February, Bajatovic told B92.
Serbia will thus save around USD 100 million per year, but this does not mean that households and heating plants will get lower prices of gas, because the current price for customers in the public supply is already lower by around 20 percent.
There are no conditions to reduce the price of gas in the public supply, despite the lower prices of gas from Russia, he said, and added that for large commercial consumers and customers who pay the full market price of gas the energy source will become cheaper by 12 percent as soon as the long-term contract comes into effect.
It has been agreed that, under the ten-year contract, Serbia will receive 5 billion m3 of gas annually, Bajatovic said.
Source emg.rs
