The long-announced Balkan Stream gas pipeline should provide a lower purchase price of gas, and in accordance with that, a lower heating price, the Ministry of Energy estimates. The relevant ministry also announces that the local self-governments will control the observance of the decree which prescribes that the lower price of gas will bring down the price of heating.
The editor of the portal Energija Balkana, Jelica Putnikovic, reminds that the United States insisted that Serbia give up the consumption of Russian gas and switch to theirs and gas from other sources.
“However, this is an impossible request for Serbia, because it does not have a gas connection with any LNG terminal. In addition, that gas could be more expensive than Russian gas, which is unfavorable for consumers, and therefore for the country itself,” Putnikovic said.
She estimates that the price of gas on the Bulgarian-Serbian border will be 155 dollars per thousand cubic meters, while the director of Srbijagas recently stated that the price of gas on the most liquid European gas exchange, the Netherlands, is now 240 dollars.
The director of Srbijagas also announced that the purchase of gas for Serbian consumers in the first two quarters of 2021 will be from 60 to 90 dollars cheaper than the gas that is bought on the stock exchange.
“Specifically, the transport costs for gas supply are lower, because transport through Hungary now costs 30, and so far it has been paid between 40 and 70 dollars,” Putnikovic said.
According to her, transit taxes through Bulgaria will be from 12 to 14 dollars, but it is not yet known how much all that will contribute to the lower price of gas to end consumers in Serbia.
The Ministry of Energy of Serbia states that the price of gas has so far not interested the state institutions, neither Srbijagas, nor the previous Ministry, and they have announced changes in that regard.
“There is a decree regulating the price which stipulates that a proposal to change the price of thermal energy, due to the increase of the variable part of the price, can be submitted in case the total price of energy increases by more than three percent, and obligatorily if it decreases by more than five estimates,” the Ministry of Energy states.
They also explain that it means lower heating prices and announce that they will control whether cities and municipalities respect that regulation.
The Ministry of Energy is also blaming Srbijagas for the bad gasification of Serbia, they say that it is “insufficient and that it has been unacceptably slow”. Some citizens claim that they have been inquiring about gasification since 2008.
“I heat with wood, and my whole area, and we are not far from the city center. The wood is over my head. Even then I wanted to introduce gas, but they told me that the pipeline did not pass through my street and that I had to pay for digging,” says Milan Petrovic from Nis.
The Ministry of Energy says that there must be diversification of sources, ie suppliers, and that only then will we have “gas security”.
It is often emphasized that the new gas pipeline through Serbia offers a lot of possibilities, so in that context, the construction of gas power plants is mentioned, as well as gas storage and interconnections.
In the south of Serbia, the gas pipeline reached Leskovac, that is, from Vladicin Han. The Ministry expects that gas could reach Vranje at the end of 2022.
This year, according to the plan, the design of the branch towards Banja Luka is being done, as well as the construction of a gas connection with Bulgaria from Nis to Dimitrovgrad.
The South Stream project, which was abandoned in 2014 due to lobbying from Washington and Brussels, also envisaged a branch towards Croatia, Nova Ekonomija reports.
