Bajatovic: Negotiations with Russians on gas arrangement to continue this week

The director general of Srbijagas, Dusan Bajatovic, has announced that, this week, the negotiations on the gas arrangement with Russia will continue, that the duration of the agreement is now being negotiated and that he hopes that the final agreement will be reached by May 31, that is, by the date of the expiration of the current gas arrangement.

Guesting on TV Prva, he clarified that, during the recent visit of president Aleksandar Vucic to Moscow, a framework talk had been had about the price of natural gas, the capacities that would be delivered and the agreement risk management.

– The first part (of the negotiations) was general, we understood each other about who wants what… We will have no problems when it comes to quantities whatsoever, the only question is the duration of the agreement, which will not be shorter than three years… We will have a capacity of 2.5 billion cubic meters of gas a year, we have achieved a good price, but I’m not sure at the moment what it will be according to the oil formula. We didn’t reach an agreement, because we are striving for a contract that would be valid for ten years – said Bajatovic.

He added that Serbia also strove to retain the interstate status of the agreement, that is, that it wanted to keep buying gas without companies-mediators, but he didn’t want to talk about the price that the two sides had achieved.

Bajatovic emphasized that sufficient quantities of gas had been secured, that the local market would not become speculative, that the price of that energy source for households would not increase, but also that industry “will have to adapt to the new prices.”

He also said that banks with payment transactions with Russian partners “are not nervous”, that payments toward Russia were not a problem despite the sanctions and that Srbijagas had recently procured a part of borehole pipes without any problems.

JP Srbijagas Novi Sad

Dušan Bajatović

gas arrangement with Russia