Today Gazprom export, the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the Serbian state owned gas company Srbijagas have inked a Memorandum of Understanding.

Inking the MoU on behalf of Gazprom export and the Serbian side were Alexander Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, Director General of Gazprom export, and Radomir Naumov, Mining & Energy Minister of the Republic of Serbia along with Milos Milankovic, Director General of Srbijagas, respectively.

The MoU fixes the mutual interest in constructing a new gas pipeline via the territory of the Republic of Serbia. Fulfilling the agreements reached by the parties opens the way towards creating alternative gas transmission capacities for sustainable and reliable gas supply to European countries, and gives Serbia the status of a transit country.

To achieve the accords set out in the MoU the parties will set up a Working Group to be responsible for a viability report on the above project and recommendations on subsequent decision-making.

The parties also confirmed their aspirations to speed up the signing of relevant documents to settle Serbia’s debt for the natural gas supplied between 1995 and 2000.

Reference:

In 2006 Serbia will receive some 2.1 bcm of Russian natural gas.

Founded on October 1, 2005 by the Government of the Republic of Serbia within the reorganization of the state-owned firm NIS (Naftna Industrija Srbije - Serbian Oil Industry), Srbijagas is the Serbian state run company dealing with natural gas transmission, distribution and storage in Serbia.

The Russian-Serbian Yugorosgaz joint venture was established in pursuance of the April 11, 1996 Intergovernmental Agreement for Cooperation in gas pipeline construction on the territory of Yugoslavia for the purpose of engineering, constructing and operating gas pipelines, providing pertinent finance, selling natural gas transported by said pipelines to consumers and transiting gas.

Gazprom considers Yugorosgaz as the main tool for developing the long-term cooperation between Russia and Serbia in the gas industry.

The grave economic situation in Yugoslavia between 1995 and 2000 spelled a debt for the Russian natural gas. Russia’s Ministry of Finance and Serbia’s Ministry of Economy have initialed a relevant Intergovernmental Agreement aiming to settle the bulk of Srbijagas’ debt to Gazprom export through the cross-cancellation of the former USSR’s debt to the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.