"Blue stream" not to bypass Serbia – official Belgrade to sign memorandum on construction of Pan-European gas pipeline by the end of year

- Judging by the guarantees that I got from Aleksandar Medvedev, the manager of Gas eksport, the gas unit of Gazprom, the main gas pipeline "Blue stream" will not bypass the territory of Serbia and the memorandum on that should be signed by the end of year 2006 - said the Minister of Mining and Energy of Serbia Radomir Naumov.

According to his words, it is extremely important to Serbia that that gas pipeline goes through its territory because the State will be collecting about 30m USD on annual basis from so-called transit tax. Also, construction of the international gas pipeline would enable creation of new jobs and certain gas supply to population and economy.

(Radomir Naumov)

Naumov reminded that the Government of Serbia had agreed at the beginning of summer that the memorandum be signed, whereas Russian side would sign it after all formalities related to preparation of such important document were finished.

- The guarantees obtained in Moscow are the best denial of the rumors that the gas pipeline from Russia to Italy, which will be used by the EU countries for annual transportation of 25 billion cubic meters of gas, will bypass Serbia. It is important to emphasize that Russia intends to finance the entire construction of that branch – said Naumov, who is in Moscow at the moment.

In addition, he said that Russia counts on Serbia regarding the energy appearance on European market, while our country would greet appearance of Russian companies on the tenders in the processes of privatization and construction of domestic energy capacities.