Mihajlovic: Serbia’s Priority is to Diversify Gas Suppliers and Build New Underground Storage Facilities

The political crisis in Ukraine will have an impact on the energy and financial stability of the whole continent, but Serbia has secured sufficient quantities of gas for the economy and households, the minister of mining and energy, Zorana Mihajlovic, said in an interview for Al Jazeera, as announced by the Government of Serbia.

– The conflict in Ukraine will reflect on the entire continent, and the prices of gas, but also other energy sources and energy in general, according to all analyses and projections, will not settle down or go back to the pre-2021 levels. This will further entail new financial crises and problems, which the World Bank and the IMF are warning of too – she said.

The priority of Serbia, she underlined, is to diversify the gas suppliers, to expand and build new underground gas storage facilities and to prepare a regional crisis plan and strategic reserves of this energy source.

– Our country is safe in the current situation, but in order to ensure security in the decades ahead of us, we must expand the storage facility in Banatski Dvor and start building a new underground storage facility in Itebej, which is part of the Serbia 2025 plan – Mihajlovic said.

Mihajlovic added that the Serbian idea was to try to make common strategic gas reserves with Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria and that it had been discussed with the Bulgarian prime minister during his visit to Belgrade not long before.

Talking about the construction of the interconnection with Bulgaria, she said that, with the completion of that project, Serbia would be able to diversify the gas suppliers, further increasing the stability and opening the possibility of buying gas at lower prices.

She added that the works were financed by the EU and that everything was being done according to the rules and procedures of the Union and the EIB.

Ministarstvo rudarstva i energetike Republike Srbije

Zorana Mihajlović

gas

energy sources

conflict in Ukraine

financial crisis

gas storage