General director of Srbijagas hopes for extension of agreement with Gazprom

ROME. Nov 17 (Interfax) - The general director of Srbijagas, Dusan Bajatovic, hopes for an extension of the current agreement with Gazprom for at least a period until the end of the heating season.

"I expect that the current gas agreement will be extended for three months, maximum for one year. If gas supplies from Russia are not extended, we have developed a Plan B and a Plan C so that we have enough gas for at least another 70 days," Bajatovic said in a broadcast on the Serbian radio and television channel RTS on Monday.

"Serbia has the capacity, enough money to buy gas on the market," Bajatovic said. "Until the end of the heating season, there will be no heating crisis," he said.

Gas from Azerbaijan is also coming via the pipeline through Sofia, but Azerbaijan itself does not have a sufficient amount for export, while gas from Turkey can also be delivered via this pipeline, he said.

Supplies of Russian natural gas to the region began in 1978. Currently, the main partner of Gazprom in Serbia is PE Srbijagas. Since 2021, the concern began supplying gas to Serbia via a new route - through the TurkStream underwater pipeline and further through Turkey and Bulgaria.

According to Eni's reference data, Serbia used 2.65 billion cubic meters of gas in 2024, with almost all of this volume coming from Russia.