Serbia will not deviate from any gas route, the goal is to diversify suppliers

Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Zorana Mihajlovic stated that the Government will try in all possible ways to make the country a transit corridor for gas and that it will not deviate from any gas route that should pass through Serbia, with the goal of diversifying suppliers.
In an interview with the Voice of America, Mihajlovic said that Serbia has diversified its gas routes, that it is an important and good step, but that there are no suppliers yet. Serbia continues to import gas only from Russia.
“What should happen in the coming period is that we do not give up talking in two directions. One is where to have LNG terminals (for liquefied natural gas), because there is no reason not to have them here, and the other is the beginning of work and completion of gas interconnection with other countries,” Mihajlovic said.
She stated that the first gas interconnection between Nis and Dimitrovgrad is next, and added that it is important because the East-Mediterranean gas pipeline, on which a lot of agreement has been reached, should come from Israel to Dimitrovgrad.
“At the technical level, there will be talks with people from the Israeli ministry and ministries from the region on Thursday, and that is something we should not shy away from. What is important is that gas stability, political stability. We will not shy away from any route which should pass through Serbia, so that it is not just Russian gas. And I think it is clear to everyone now, that there is no going back,” said Mihajlovic.
She said that she thinks that a tender for the construction of the gas pipeline from Nis to Dimitrovgrad will be announced next week, and that a tender has already been announced for the company that will supervise the construction of that interconnection.
“What must also be done this year is the project technical documentation for interconnections with other countries. Documentation for connections with Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro will be prepared. We will work on documentation for the construction of the gas pipeline to Pristina and for the construction of the gas pipeline with Montenegro. That gives Serbia the opportunity to accept gas that will be from another supplier,” the energy minister said.
Asked why she was not at the opening of the Balkan Stream on January 1, she said that the most important thing was that the gas pipeline was constructively completed, that the compressor stations were completed and that from 2021 it would be fully operational.
She stated that it is still operational, but that the pressure is not as it should be and that not all compressor stations are finished.
Speaking about the director of Srbijagas, Dusan Bajatovic, when she often criticizes, Mihajlovic said that “there is no Russia behind him” and added that “all those stories about big conspiracies” are not true.
“It is a question of our internal organization, do we want to have a profitable Srbijagas or will we let it work the way it does. I generally think that the director of Srbijagas is a disgrace for everyone, he is a disgrace for some Russia if we put it that way, but it is it is a disgrace for our financial sector as well,” said Mihajlovic.
She denied that Bajatovic was “guarded” in office by the Government of Serbia, that is, the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, due to relations with Moscow.
“Dusan Bajatovic is currently the director of Srbijagas, he has the obligation to implement the decision of the Government on the division of activities, it is functioning for now. A working group of the Government has been formed, moving with the division of gas transport and distribution. If that does not go according to the Government decision, we, as the Ministry, will propose the dismissal of the director to the personnel commission,” she stated.
Regarding the fear of citizens from the vicinity of Loznica that the environment will be endangered by the extraction of lithium ore, which the Australian company Rio Tinto should start in 2023, Mihajlovic said that all documentation related to the mine will be distributed to citizens and that the government will not agree to anything which can endanger human health.
“The study on environmental protection has not been completed yet, it is being done, among other things, by our universities in Belgrade. But what it looks like in a country depends on how the state treats its investor. We will not do anything that could endanger the environment and health of people, and that is point one,” Mihajlovic told the Voice of America, Beta reports.