Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. File photoBELGRADE, Mar 24Against the backdrop of the sanctions crisis, the Serbian authorities, together with their Russian partners, should expand existing and build new oil and gas storage facilities as soon as possible, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Radio and Television of Vojvodina. they hit not on the interests of Russia or the European Union, but on Serbia. According to the Serbian leader, the Europeans left themselves the opportunity to work with Gazprom Neft on their territory, import from Russia, but third countries where oil refineries or companies are owned by Russians will not be able to export and import oil.
" ;We have a problem with oil, and now, when we fill (storage) 34 thousand tons in Smederevo, when we fill the military storage with 18 thousand tons, plus 7.4 thousand tons for aviation fuel, when we fill and pay for all this, we have nowhere else to store , we need to build new storage facilities, such times have come", — said Vučić.
The Serbian Oil Industry (NIS), in which Gazprom Neft's share is 65.15%, is the largest in the region and, in fact, the only refiner and producer of oil in Serbia. In January, NIS signed a new one-year contract with the operator of the JANAF oil pipeline, which delivers Russian raw materials from the port of Omišalj in Croatia, for 3.2 million tons. storage of additional volumes, no matter how much it costs. You saw that the Germans said that in the summer they should fill their gas storages. Even if we fill the gas storages, these volumes are not enough for us,» Vučić said. Earlier, he said that Serbia now consumes up to 13 million cubic meters of gas daily.Vučić called Western accusations against Russia «stupid and shameful»The Serbian leader announced in December 2021 that he plans to expand the underground gas storage facility (UGS) Banatski Dvor with Russia from about 500 million to 1 billion cubic meters and build a new gas storage facility nearby at the site of the current Itebey gas measuring station in a settlement near Banatski Dvor in the autonomous region of Vojvodina towards the Romanian border. Serbia receives gas under an agreement with Gazprom from November last year until May 31 at $270 per thousand cubic meters, 6 million cubic meters per day. The Serbian authorities reported that they plan to sign the next contract with the Russian side for 10 years. The director of the state company Srbiyagaz, Dusan Bajatović, said that the leadership of Serbia and Russia could reach a new agreement on gas supplies by May 15. The Ministry of Energy of the country announced on Tuesday that Russian gas from the Turkish Stream continues to flow through the gas transmission system of Bulgaria to Serbia and Hungary, there is no decision to suspend the supply. .jpg» />Russia will convert payments for gas supplies to Europe into rubles