President of the National Petroleum Committee of Serbia at the Energy Security Panel:
Diversification of energy suppliers and supply routes is important for Serbia
Belgrade, December 2022 - Diversification of energy suppliers and supply routes is of great importance for the energy stability of Serbia, according to today's participants of the panel titled “Oil and Gas Pipeline Network: New Regional Energy Pathways”, which was held as part of the 22nd Belgrade Economic Forum.
It was also stated that the construction of new gas and oil pipelines which would connect Serbia with the already existing transport capacities in the region will play a significant role in that process.
Goran Stojilković, President of the National Petroleum Committee of Serbia (NPCS), pointed out at the panel that Serbia is well prepared to face the challenges of the current energy crisis, with energy security ensured before the start of winter.
He stated that in the future period all of Europe will be facing a great challenge in terms of oil and gas prices, which are already affecting the economy, in view of the closing of some production facilities and postponing of announced investments.
Stojilković added that the key issue for Serbia in the future period is the diversification of energy suppliers, and that the NPCS, as an umbrella organization in Serbia for the oil and gas sector, will support and contribute to the evaluation of this important issue.
According to him, investments in oil and gas pipelines are expensive and require longer implementation time, but will pay off in the long term.
Stojilković added that the construction of new transport capacities is of great importance for Serbia, especially towards Greece, as a point of LNG supply, adding that the supply of this energy source is currently a global trend.
Agreeing with him, Bogdan Kuzmanović, Director of Transnafta Serbia, stated that the most important task of his company is securing stable oil supply to Serbia.
He added that in the current crisis regular supply of Serbia is secured, in spite of the fact that the import of Russian oil via the “Janaf” oil pipeline was banned as of December 5, following sanctions imposed by the European Union.
Kuzmanovic also voiced support of diversification in the energy sector, especially when it comes to the construction of new oil pipelines which would reduce Serbia’s dependence on oil supply from a single route.
He pointed out the importance for Serbia of the construction of another oil pipeline that would connect with the “Družba” oil pipeline in Hungary, as well as an oil pipeline to North Macedonia which would branch off to Thessaloniki in Greece, i.e. Durrës in Albania.
President of the NPCS Goran Stojilković also spoke about the decarbonization process and stated that Serbia must decisively continue with that process, because otherwise the domestic economy could be exposed to taxes when placing goods on foreign markets.
Stojilković also spoke about the work of the NPCS and said that the national Committee is a part of Forum of the World Petroleum Council (WPC) which represents 95 % of oil and gas production in the world.
According to him, the NPCS is very active, it organizes numerous conferences and has significant publishing activity. Stojilković particularly pointed out that the domestic sector is not lagging behind global trends when it comes to digitization and that he is very satisfied with this state of affairs.
The moderator of the panel was Aleksandar Međedović from the Turkish-German Chamber of Commerce.
