Recently, the Public Company Srbijagas was forced to take, as the expert public claims, an unfavorable loan of 200 million euros for the purchase of additional quantities of gas with a state guarantee, reports Demostat.
Explaining why this happened, the Ministry of Finance said that “Srbijagas’ liquidity would be jeopardized without new loans, because companies are forced to continue importing additional quantities at significantly higher purchase prices due to the secure and continuous supply of natural gas to Serbia.”
As Demostat has learned in circles well informed about the developments in the gas sector, the need for additional quantities of imported gas arose due to excessive depletion of stocks in the underground gas storage Banatski dvor.
Before the start of the heating season, that warehouse was almost completely supplied with gas. However, due to the late overhaul of block B1 at the Nikola Tesla B Thermal Power Plant in Obrenovac, which reduced domestic electricity production in conditions of increased consumption due to the winter, Serbian authorities were forced to consume larger quantities of gas from Banatski Dvor.
That gas was supplied to the Pannonian thermal power plants – heating plants in Novi Sad, in order to produce the missing quantities of electricity, which caused the gas storage to be almost completely emptied and not enough to regularly replenish daily consumption in Serbia.
If the gas in the reserve in the warehouse in Banatski Dvor was not used for electricity production, those quantities, according to the expert public, would be quite sufficient for the needs of consumers during the winter season and there would be no need for emergency import and indebtedness of Srbijagas.
According to Demostat, the expert public also believes that the lack of gas would not have happened if the storage had been expanded, as planned, but which has not happened so far.
Experts claim that Gazprom does not want to sell additional quantities of gas needed by Serbia, at least at this moment, at a preferential price of 270 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters, but offers them at a much higher price, which is still more favorable than on stock exchanges.
Referring to the statements of the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, Demostat estimates that Srbijagas pays between 3.1 and 4.7 million dollars a day for additional quantities of gas.
The Secretary General of the Gas Association of Serbia, Vojislav Vuletić, claims that at this moment, certain quantities of gas are being pumped into the underground gas storage of Banatski dvor.
“We entered a period in which consumption was lower, and then the surpluses were stored in the Banatski dvor, so that they could be spent if needed,” Vuletic explained.
He announced that he would mostly use the funds he received on credit for investments, and not for the purchase of gas, he announced, but he pointed out that it would certainly be useful if part of the money obtained by borrowing went to purchase additional quantities of gas.
Source: nova.rs
