Belgrade, 04 December 2025, dtt-net.com – Serbia will sign with Gazprom another short-term for natural gas supplies, but not a three-year one, according to the President Aleksandar Vucic. “Serbia will not have problem with gas. I expect signing short-term agreement. Certainly, we will not have gas problems until the end of summer,” Vucic told Tv Pink today after talks with Russian Ambassador Aleksandr Botsan-Kharchenko earlier today.
“We discussed joint projects of strategic importance to our country, as well as gas supply and infrastructure projects that further strengthen our energy system. I am confident that through open dialogue and respect for common interests, we will continue to build relations that guarantee security, stability, and predictability for our country,” Vucic said in an earlier statement over the meeting with Russian ambassador.
Serbia had wanted a three-year agreement with Russians for natural gas supplies.
At the same time Vucic welcomed today’s decision of USA government to partially exempt Lukoil from sanctions, which for Serbia means 112 petrol stations can function in the country.
Serbia imports Russian natural gas through TurkStream owned by Gazprom, which arrives in Serbia from Türkiye through Bulgaria.
Serbia since last year is importing also Azerbaijani gas, from EU’s TAP pipeline in Greece through Bulgaria, bringing the consumption of gas to 2.847 bcm per year.
With the hoped but postponed new long-term deal with Russia, imports of gas in Serbia would increase to 4,37 bcm/year, of which 3,46 from Russia.
But Serbia’s problems with energy supplies are not over, despite today’s announcement by Vucic.
Russia-owned NIS oil refinery in Serbia yesterday started suspending production operations as USA government refused to exempt it from sanctions.
USA government has asked Russian companies, Gazpromneft and Intelligence, both owned b Gazprom, to sell their 56,15% of shares to remove NIS from sanctions list.
Vucic earlier this week said that Russians are not willing to exit from their 56,15% ownership, while today said he still hopes they will.
Russian companies have had talks with Hungarian MOL and United Arab Emirates (UAE) Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) over their shares, but no deal is announced so far.
Implementation of sanctions on NIS are in force since October 9 as the government of Donald Trump had postponed them several times, after sanctions were decided in January this year by the government of Joe Biden as part of sanctions on Gazpromneft, which are part of sanctions on Russia because of military aggression against Ukraine.
In the meantime, Hungary has said it will come to the rescue of Serbia over oil derivates and will supply Serbia to help the country cope with the USA sanctions.
