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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Construction of pipeline towards Bulgaria a lasting solution for Serbian gas supply

Belgrade/Moscow, 31 October 2006

Serbian Minister of Energy and Mining Radomir Naumov said today that the issue of supplying gas to Serbia can be solved permanently by constructing a gas pipeline towards Bulgaria.

Radomir Naumov

Author: Tanjug

In a statement to the news agency Tanjug, Naumov said that in order to do that we must wait for a suitable time, and also put the reservoir and underground gas storage facility Banatski Dvor into operation.

The Minister said that there are limitations on the quantity of gas being supplied to Serbia from the direction of Hungary, so that additional amounts cannot be purchased. He added that a decision has been brought to fully equip the Banatski Dvor storage facility with its own resources, in which process shareholders could be included later.

He explained that shareholders could engage in the acquisition of initial quantities of gas, to the amount of some 200 million cubic meters.

The Minister reiterated that Deputy Chairman of Russian Gazprom Aleksandar Medvedev has confirmed that there is a resolve in Gazprom that Russian gas will be directed from Turkey through Bulgaria and Serbia towards Europe, which would be of great benefit to Serbia.

The decision is there, Naumov said, but as in any every big company there are still some formalities to complete. He added that Medvedev has said that a memorandum of understanding should be signed by the end of this year.

According to Naumov, that is also confirmed by the fact that Gazprom has already envisaged the quantity of gas needed for Serbia from the Bulgarian direction.

He said that in the talks he held today, Russian Minister of Industry and Energy Victor Khristenko confirmed Russia’s interest in supplying gas to Europe from a southern direction, and pointed out that by the end of the year it will be known which direction will be used.

Naumov announced that representatives of the Serbian gas company Srbijagas will hold talks in Moscow today, on the conditions, quantity and dynamics of gas supply for the upcoming year, and also discuss the price for the first quarter of 2007.

He said that by the end of this year, according to the January 1, 2006 contract, 2.3 billion cubic metres of gas will be supplied, and according to customary procedure Srbijagas has asked for a certain quantity of gas for 2007.

The Serbian delegation which includes Serbian assistant ministers of energy and mining Slobodan Sokolovic and Milutin Prodanovic, General Director of public company Srbijagas Milos Milankovic, General Director of public enterprise Transnafta Nebojsa Lemaic, and General Director of the Serbian Oil Industry (NIS) Srdjan Bosnjankovic, participated in the two-day conference titled “Comparative analysis of Russian and EU energy strategies”, which is being held in the framework of the International Energy Week “Moscow Energy Dialogue”.