Serbia interested in Azerbaijan's natural gas, hydrogen

The construction of the Bulgaria-Serbia Interconnector Gas Pipeline (IBS) is a priority for Serbia, as the pipeline will allow the country to receive Azerbaijani gas and gas from an LNG terminal in Greece.

Report informs citing Serbian media that Minister of Mining and Energy of Serbia Zorana Mihajlovic made the remark in Sofia, where she took part in a meeting of energy ministers, also joined by her counterparts from Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, North Macedonia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Turkiye, as well as representatives of the European Commission and the Energy Community.

During this meeting, Mihajlovic signed a contract with her Bulgarian counterpart Alexander Nikolov for the design, construction, equipment, and launch of the Bulgarian section of the IBS gas pipeline.

"The construction of the interconnector with Bulgaria is the most significant project for us. Work on our part began in January, and today we've signed a contract for work on the Bulgarian part, which will speed up the construction of the IBS gas pipeline and complete it by September next year," said Mihajlovic.

According to her, she discussed Serbia's capacities in the Turkish Stream gas pipeline with the Turkish Deputy Energy Minister, and Azerbaijani gas supplies and the development of new technologies, in particular, hydrogen with Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov.

"At the meeting, we discussed the filling of storage facilities before the start of the winter season and the accelerated decarbonization of the energy sector and the need to jointly respond in case of further disruptions and cooperate in solidarity," the Serbian minister said.

Bulgaria and Serbia signed a declaration on the construction of the IBS gas pipeline in May 2018 during the EU-Western Balkans summit.

The throughput capacity of the pipeline exceeds 1.8 bcm per year with the possibility of expansion to 4 billion cubic meters and reverse. IBS will supply Serbia via Bulgaria with gas from the Southern Gas Corridor, through which gas from Azerbaijan is pumped to Europe, as well as liquefied natural gas from LNG Alexandroupolis terminal in Greece after regasification.

The IBS gas pipeline extends to 170 kilometers, with 108 kilometers in Serbia and 62 kilometers in Bulgaria.

The project will cost Serbia 89 million euros, of which 49.6 million euros are EU subsidies.

Azerbaijan started gas supplies to Europe via the Trans-Adriatic Gas Pipeline (TAP) at the end of 2020. Throughout the first year, the deliveries reach 8.1 billion cubic meters. For 2022, the volume of gas supplies via TAP to Europe is projected at over 10 bcm.