Serbia reaches agreement to extend Russian gas supplies until end-March - Vucic
MOSCOW. Dec 23 (Interfax) - Serbia has reached an agreement to extend Russian gas supplies until the end of March 2026, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said.
"We have an agreement to extend gas supplies for another three months, until March 31, so that people can be safe and sleep soundly," the RTS TV channel quoted him as saying.
Belgrade had expected to sign a new long-term gas supply contract back in May this year.
Russia began exporting natural gas to the region in 1978. Gazprom's key partner within Serbia is currently the state-owned Srbijagas. Since 2021, Gazprom has been supplying gas to Serbia via a new route, through the offshore TurkStream pipeline and then through Turkey and Bulgaria.
Serbia consumed 2.69 billion cubic meters of gas in 2023, almost all of it supplied by Russia.
Energy cooperation with Belgrade is being complicated by the situation surrounding Russian investments in the national energy company NIS. Russia assumes that the Serbian authorities will continue fulfilling their obligations under the intergovernmental agreement in light of the situation with NIS, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during his Direct Line in Friday.
NIS was included in the U.S. SDN List in early 2025. In this regard, Vucic has said the U.S. was demanding that Serbia rid NIS of Russian capital completely.
"Sanctions pressure continues. This also applies to our company, Gazprom Neft , which owns NIS. Gazprom Neft has invested a lot of money in this company, over $3 billion to date, and has transformed it into a modern, highly efficient enterprise. It is Serbia's main taxpayer. We have an intergovernmental agreement with Serbia in the event any restrictions are imposed against this commercial entity. And, of course, we work on the assumption that Serbia's leadership, which is friendly to us, will keep this in mind and honor its commitments. Otherwise, the question arises how money can be invested in this economy? Where are the safeguards if even the intergovernmental agreement fails to deliver? But we have an idea of how and in what direction we could move forward together. And such a dialogue is underway with our friends from Serbia. We hope that we will find the right solution," the Russian president said on December 19.
