Serbia reaches new agreement for gas supplies from Russia

2026-03-30 15:13:55, Kosova & Bota CNA

Serbia has reached an agreement to extend the existing contract for gas supplies from Russia, Serbian President Aleksandar Vu?i? announced on March 30, leaving Moscow as Belgrade's main supplier of natural gas.

Vucic announced this issue after a telephone conversation he had with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The new agreement is for three months and, according to it, Serbia will be able to import 6 million cubic meters of gas from Russia.

At a press conference, Vu?i? said that the price of gas will be between $320 and $330 per 1,000 cubic meters. He described these conditions as "very favorable," for which he thanked Putin.

The short-term agreement reached in December expired on March 31.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Serbia has begun to reduce its dependence on Moscow's gas, but it still gets more than 80 percent of its needs from Russia.

This dependence on Russia, as Hungarian energy expert Attila Holoda estimates for Radio Free Europe's Balkan Service, is conditioned by both economic and political factors.

However, he considers that at this moment the economic factor remains more direct.

"Russian gas has long been supplied to Serbia on relatively favorable terms, while existing infrastructure and trade relations make this option easier in the short term," he stressed.

At the same time, according to Holodas, the political dimension is also important, in which Belgrade tries to maintain stable relations with Moscow, clearly balancing it in relation to its path towards the EU.

The European Union is trying to reduce Russia's energy revenues from the war in Ukraine and plans to completely ban imports of Russian oil and gas by January 1, 2028.

The gradual cessation of Russian gas imports into the EU territory began at the beginning of the year and does not apply to the transit of Russian gas to third countries.

However, the EU expects Serbia, as a candidate country for membership, to gradually harmonize with all decisions.

Serbia is the only EU candidate country in the Western Balkans that has not imposed sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Serbia already buys gas from Azerbaijan, via Bulgaria, while construction of a gas pipeline to North Macedonia, which would provide access to liquefied natural gas from Greece, is expected to begin this year./ REL