Panel at the Kopaonik Business Forum: Serbia Preserved Energy Stability

Panel at the Kopaonik Business Forum: Serbia Preserved Energy Stability

The President of the National Petroleum Committee of Serbia, Goran Stojilković, participated in the panel titled "Energy Security under the Global Economic Crisis - Challenges and Recommendations for the Future"

Panel participants were Dubravka Đedović, Minister of Mining and Energy, Dušan Bajatović, General Manager of Srbijagas, Goran Stojilković, President of the National Petroleum Committee of Serbia, Dirk Buschle, Deputy Director of the Energy Community Secretariat, Nicola Pontara, World Bank Country Manager for Serbia, and Ernst Bode, CEO of Messer Tehnogas.

Dubravka Đedović pointed out that the government will ensure stable energy supplies in the coming period as well. She said that sufficient gas supplies for the winter season were secured in the storage facilities in Serbia and Hungary, and that reserves of oil derivatives were 54 percent higher at the end of 2022 in comparison to 2021.

She said that thanks to the fiscal reforms in previous years and active government measures amid the energy crisis, we have succeeded in preserving a competitive economy and making Serbia attractive to investors, at the same time avoiding a full spillover effect of the drastic increase of stock market prices to the Serbian market.

At the same panel, Dušan Bajatović, General Manager of Srbijagas, said that Serbia was well prepared for the previous period and that it had well-stocked gas storage facilities.

He added that it is necessary to work further on diversifying gas supply routes.

Bajatović said that we have a number of options, including gas from Azerbaijan, but that the problem is that they are looking for long-term contracts, over a period of 10 to 15 years. As he said, Serbia has free capacities in the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, short-term, which will enable us to import surplus gas from Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece, and discussions to this end have also been held with Qatar.

The President of the National Petroleum Committee of Serbia, Goran Stojilković, said that the domestic oil sector was well prepared for the crisis period and that regular market supply was secured.

"In the oil sector, the crisis began much earlier than 2022, more precisely, it can be traced back to the fourth quarter of 2019. Since then, there have been many market disruptions, budgeting became especially difficult, but these challenges have helped us strengthen our efficiency and resilience. Although the demand for oil derivatives has grown in the previous year, there was no disruption of supply", said Stojilković.

He said that, owing to significant investments, Serbia has competitive capacities for oil processing and that the refinery in Pančevo has been working at full capacity in order to meet market demands.

"Thanks to all of the above stated, I can say that in the short-term the stability of the domestic market will be maintained," said Stojilković and expressed support for the further diversification of Serbia's oil supply routes.

Članice: