Serbia agrees on Russian gas supplies until end of March

Ulyana Krychkovska, Alona Mazurenko - 23 December, 15:57

Aleksandar Vučić. Photo: Getty Images

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has said that his country has reached an agreement with Russia to continue gas supplies until the end of March.

Source: Serbian broadcaster RTS, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Vučić said that Serbia will have both electricity and sufficient gas for the upcoming winter season.

Quote: "We have agreed to extend gas supplies for another three months, until 31 March, so that people can be confident and sleep peacefully."

Details: Belgrade had expected to conclude a new long-term gas supply contract as early as May this year.

Vučić also said that representatives of Russia's Gazprom are discussing the sale of a stake in Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS), which is currently under US sanctions, including to the Hungarian national company MOL.

He emphasised that the Serbian leadership has no objections to this.

"The Hungarians are our friends. We just need to finish as soon as possible, by 15 January," the Serbian president added.

NIS, Serbia's largest oil company, has been under US sanctions since early October after several delays.

Background:

The United States insists that Russian companies give up their 56.2% stake in NIS. Due to the sanctions, the NIS refinery in Pančevo, near Belgrade, was shut down.
Against this background, Serbian authorities are already considering abandoning NIS as the main oil supplier if the situation does not change.
Meanwhile, Hungarian oil and gas company MOL will increase deliveries of crude oil and fuel to Serbia.

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