Asked to comment on the possibility of selling the Russian stake in the ownership of NIS, she told Euronews Serbia that the state would “do everything necessary to ensure energy security and enable an uninterrupted supply of oil,” her cabinet said.
She mentioned that Serbia had excellent cooperation with NIS “all the time and when it comes to procurement and storage”.
She emphasized that “the issue of energy security is a matter of state development”.
“We are exempt from the fifth package of sanctions (EU against Russia), but we do not know what may happen in the next period, and that is why we are considering all options,” she said.
She stated that with the completion of the interconnection with Bulgaria, in September next year, Serbia will get the opportunity to diversify its natural gas suppliers and increase its energy independence.
She said that “Serbia is still dependent on one supplier”, and stated that Serbia has two directions of gas supply, but it is dependent on Russia.
“The connection with Bulgaria, which will be ready next year, gives us the opportunity to negotiate and to receive LPG (liquid gas) from Greece from September next year, to connect with gas from Azerbaijan, which reduces our dependence,” she said.
She stated that the state will do everything to have enough energy and energy sources, and that Serbia will welcome the next winter with sufficient quantities of oil, oil derivatives, as well as gas, electricity and heat.
“We cannot know for sure what the price of gas will be, because these are tectonic disturbances in the markets and the question is what price we will be able to get in the negotiations with Gazprom, it will certainly not be like before,” she said.
She pointed out that “there are things that do not depend on Serbia”, and stated that everything has been done to make Serbia energy safe in these conditions, Nova reports.
