The ban on the import of Russian crude oil through the Adriatic Oil Pipeline (JANAF) in Serbia should not significantly affect the increase in fuel prices on the domestic market, energy experts told Beta today.
The sixth package of EU sanctions against Russia, which bans the delivery of crude oil from that country via the Adriatic Oil Pipeline (JANAF) from the port of Omisalj in Croatia to the refinery in Pancevo, should not significantly increase the price of fuel in Serbia. Oil is being formed on the world stock exchange, the honorary president of the Union of Employers of Serbia, Nebojsa Atanackovic, told Beta today.
Unlike the price of crude oil, according to him, the price of gas on the stock exchange has increased many times in recent months, although there is a possibility of contracting.
After the new, sixth package of EU sanctions against Russia, adopted last week, the Oil Industry of Serbia (NIS) will not be able to deliver Russian crude oil through the JANAF oil pipeline because it is prohibited to supply via any port, by sea. For the Serbian market, NIS delivered one third of its crude oil needs by tankers from Russia to the port of Omisalj in Croatia, from where it reached the refinery in Pancevo by JANAF.
Atanackovic said that without oil sanctions, there may have been a possibility that NIS would deliver crude oil to Serbia at slightly better prices than the stock market, and in the conditions of sanctions, oil will be imported at world prices.
Ljubinko Savić, Energy Advisor at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce (SCC), assessed that Serbia has good oil reserves and that there should be no major problems on the market of petroleum products.
He said that the mitigating circumstance is that NIS produces about 20 percent of the required quantities of crude oil from domestic deposits in Vojvodina.
“I do not expect fuel prices on the Serbian market to rise soon, because oil derivatives have already risen in price last week, reacting to the announcement of a new package of EU sanctions against Russia,” Savic said.
He added that ultimately oil prices depend on movements in the global market.
Savic said that one of the possibilities is to procure at least a part of Russian oil through the Druzba oil pipeline, which is included in JANAF near Sisak in Croatia, but that the question is what are the possibilities for leasing capacity.
He said that there is still the possibility of buying oil on the stock exchange, but not Russian because the origin is marked, which excludes the possibility of buying oil from Russia, Politika reports.
