Bajatovic: "I've just returned from Moscow, everything depends on the Vucic-Putin meeting"

Photo: Tanjug/Sinisa Kupinovic

Dusan Bajatovic, General Director of Srbijagas, Serbia's natural gas public enterprise, who has just returned from Moscow where he had negotiations about conditions under which Serbia buys Russian gas, says that everything regarding the gas issue in the coming period depends on the meeting between presidents of Serbia and Russia Aleksandar Vucic and Vladimir Putin.

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"I have just returned from Moscow and I submitted a report to the president and the government and I want to say publicly that everything we asked about, asked for and negotiated about - since we requested to get really the most favorable conditions - the answer I received was that our requests can only be approved by President Putin," Bajatovic told Tanjug.

He stressed that the final agreement regarding the supply of gas to Serbia will be reached during a meeting between Vucic and Putin.

"In a long series of negotiations we have had with suppliers, especially with Gazprom Export, we can say that Serbia is in a very difficult situation when it comes to energy, and we are also in a difficult situation when it comes to gas supply and gas prices. Currently market prices are between $1,000 and $1,200 (for 1,000 cubic meters of gas), we currently pay $270, but the quantities we now have, that is, those we are importing and those in Banatski Dvor (storage facility) are simply not enough, because we have growing demand and we have started producing electricity in all gas plants, where that was possible," Bajatovic said.

He added that if we consider the situation in the region, we can see that Croats and Slovenians have already announced that the price of gas will triple there from November 1, regardless of the fact that is not in their contracts.

"So, we are conditionally speaking safe until the New Year, and it's obvious that the fate of the future long-term agreement between Serbia and Russia, i.e. Gazprom and Srbijagas, will literally depend on the upcoming meeting between Putin and Vucic, which will happen in a relatively short period of time," Bajatovic stressed.

Asked whether he expects Serbia to get a good gas price, Bajatovic told Tanjug that it is not a good idea to talk about expectations at the moment, but that there are conditions for that conversation to be good for Serbia's interests, that is, for the interests of Gazprom and Srbijagas.

(Telegraf Biznis)