So Far No Announcement of Stopping of Gas Supplies from Bulgaria – Serbia Has Three Options in Case of Gas Crisis

The minister of mining and energy of Serbia, Zorana Mihajlovic, has stated that the gas supply through the Balkan Stream is stable and that, so far, there are no announcements of the stopping of gas supplies from Bulgaria, but that the state will activate the crisis plan if it happens.

Mihajlovic said on RTS that Serbia regularly got the agreed quantities of gas through the Balkan Stream through Bulgaria, a transit country for which gas supplies had been stopped, as announced on the website of the Government of Serbia.

– So far, everything is going as usual, which doesn’t mean that we are not ready for any situation. There have been no announcements, we are in contact with the Bulgarian side, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t happen that Bulgaria, since it is 100% dependent on Russian gas, decides to take a part from the transit for itself – she said.

The deputy prime minister said that Serbia had enough gas in the Banatski Dvor underground storage facility for more than one month and that another option of the crisis plan was substitution, most likely mazut or the limiting of supplies.

She pointed out that the third option was for Russian partners to continue supplies through Hungary and emphasized that Serbia was ready for all scenarios in the case of an energy-political crisis.

She explained that the state also considered alternative routes and added that there were free capacities of Transgaz in the Balkan Stream of close to 10%, nearly a half of Serbia’s annual consumption.

According to her, Bulgartransgaz has free capacities and the Turksih operator could transport the quantities which would secure Serbia’s stability.

Ministarstvo rudarstva i energetike Republike Srbije

Ministry of Mining and Energy

Transgaz

Bulgartransgaz

Gazprom

Balkan Stream

Banatski dvor

transit

Russian gas