Aleksandar Vucic (BETAPHOTO/MILAN ILIC)
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced on March 3 that measures would be prepared in the next few days for securing energy stability amid uncertainties stemming from the war in the Persian Gulf.
“There will be hell to pay in Europe if the war continues. My idea is to find the measures on how to secure subsidies in the next month, because we cannot allow the crude price to go wild. We will implement measures, we will inform you about everything on Saturday or Sunday (March 6 or 7),” Vucic told reporters after inspecting the reconstructed National Dispatch Center of the Elektromreza Srbije national power transmission utility.
Vucic stated that it was necessary to invest EUR1.4 billion in the next five or six years into the grid of the Elektrodistribucija Srbije national power utility, and another EUR400 million in the Elektromreza Srbije. He recollected that the national grid extended over 168,000 kilometers, of which 120,000 kilometers above ground with 60,000 in forested areas, which was why new surveillance drones and installation technicians were needed.
He emphasized that Serbia had large stockpiles of oil, oil derivatives and gas. “We have 519 million cubic meters of gas in stock in Serbia and Hungary, but we cannot draw such quantities with the capacity of our pipelines,” Vucic stated.
He said he hoped the party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban would win the elections in Hungary, because he is a great friend of Serbia. He dismissed as “claptrap” the claims that the forthcoming local elections in Serbia had been scheduled for the end of March so that the predicted March 12 election loss by Orban would not have a negative effect on the Serbian Progressive Party’s rating.
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