Serbia will benefit from Turkish gas hub – official

Russian supplies via Türkiye would help Belgrade meet the growing energy demand, the head of Serbia’s gas association says

A proposed natural gas hub in Türkiye would provide Serbia’s new power stations with additional fuel and allow the country to boost its annual consumption to four billion cubic meters (bcm), Vojislav Vuletic, the head of the Gas Association of Serbia, told RIA Novosti on Monday.

“If the gas hub is established in Türkiye, it means new supplies and perhaps [new] pipelines [will be built] via Serbia, which is very useful,” he said.

Last week, Turkish presidential representative Ibrahim Kalin said the proposed hub would not only make Türkiye a transit country but could also serve as a platform for determining gas prices.

In late October, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that he had accepted a proposal from his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to create an international natural gas hub in Türkiye upon which numerous foreign countries would be able to rely in the future.

Both leaders have agreed to expedite the development of such a hub, which would enable Russia to redirect supplies away from the Nord Stream gas pipelines after they were seriously damaged in explosions in September.

READ MORE: Türkiye reveals decision on Russian gas hub plan

The Serbian power generation sector is moving away from coal-fired stations, as most of its units are outdated. These were built half a century ago and will soon be closed, according to Vuletic. The country’s state-owned electricity company EBS is planning to construct new gas-fired stations in Subotica, Novi Sad, Sremska Mitrovica, Belgrade, Kragujevac and Nis. This would require about 1.7 bcm annually, he said.

“With the current volume of consumption, we will need about four bcm annually,” Vuletic added.
Currently, Russia is Serbia’s only natural gas supplier.

Find more stories on economy and finance in TROIB business