Line Minister: Serbia Must Defend Its Energy Stability even if It Would Require Changing Ownership Structure in Oil and Gas Company NIS

Zorana Mihajlovic (BETAPHOTO/MINISTRY OF MINING AND ENERGY/ZORAN PETROVIC/MO)

Mining and Energy Minister Zorana Mihajlovic has said that Serbia has to defend its energy stability even if it would require changing ownership structure in oil and gas company NIS.

“We have to defend energy stability at all costs, even at the cost of changing ownership structure of NIS. We would not be taking anything away from anyone, but we have to take care of ourselves,” Mihajlovic said in an interview with BETA on May 10, replying to the question whether the government had the funds to buy out shares in NIS if forced to do so due to EU sanctions on the companies which were majority owned by Russia.

Mihajlovic said that cooperation with NIS had been very good, adding she was aware of how much NIS “has been trying now, during the times which are not easy, to ensure enough fuels and other oil derivatives for all, but we have been witnessing that the EU has been introducing more sanctions against Russian companies and it is a reality we all have to consider.”  

She stressed that at the moment, Serbia had sufficient quantities of all types of fuels and that there had been no shortages so far, which had not been easy to ensure, “but, Serbia has been managing.” “The war in Ukraine has changed the world. It has changed it and is yet to change Serbia. What is extremely important for Serbia at the moment is to maintain political and energy stability. We have political stability, which has been verified with victories of Aleksandar Vucic in presidential elections and of the Serbian Progressive Party in elections at all levels. But in order to achieve energy stability, we have to do many things,” Mihajlovic noted.

According to the minister, NIS is an important link in Serbia’s energy supply chain, adding that Serbia had to “maintain that energy chain and therefore none of the links can be weak.”