Serbian energy minister Aleksandar Antic has said the country currently has no outstanding debt to Russia for natural gas imports.
The government has paid in full the debt owed by state-owned gas monopoly Srbijagas and petrochemicals producer HIP Petrohemija toYugoRosGaz, Gazprom Export and NIS [BEL:NIIS] worth $450 million (400 million euro) and 250 million euro, respectively, Antic has said during a meeting with Russian energy minister Alexander Novak in St. Petersburg, Russia, according to a statement issued by the Serbian energy ministry last week.
"This is the first time that Serbia does not owe a single dollar for the delivery of natural gas," Antic said during the meeting, carried out in the framework of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
Russia and Serbia analyse the potential broadening of their cooperation in the field of underground natural gas storage and liquefied natural gas (LNG), Novak said in a separate statement issued by the Russian energy ministry last week.
Gazprom said on Friday it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Serbian state-run gas distributor Srbijagas for the expansion of the Banatski Dvor underground natural gas storage facility in Serbia.
In 2016, Gazprom delivered 1.75 billion cubic meters of gas to Serbia, up 4.3%.
(SeeNews, June 5, 2017)
