Gas to Be 15 Percent Cheaper for Businesses as of May 1

Dusan Bajatovic (BETAPHOTO/Dragan Gojic)

Srbijagas director Dusan Bajatovic announced on April 18 that natural gas for businesses i.e. industrial consumers would be cheaper by 15 percent as of May 1, adding that the price of gas for households would not change.

"All of the conditions are there for gas to cheapen for industrial consumers and those on the free market. The markdown will equal 15 percent,"  Bajatovic told RTS. He said that as of May 1 the state would no longer subsidize gas prices and that heated debates were led inside the Serbian cabinet, Ministry of Energy and above all the Ministry of Finance, over this.

The director of Srbijagas said that prices on the exchange had gone up by 25 percent in the past several days. "The war in Gaza, Israel's war, possibly [a war] between Iran and Israel, the war between Russia and Ukraine, we can call it the war between NATO and Russia, all of this raises the level of uncertainty. Ergo, there has been no particular increase in  the production of gas and production of oil, simply there is more and more uncertainty and therefore prices are going up," Bajatovic said, adding that the outlook was not particularly optimistic.

"We are relatively secure, because we have a deal with Russia's Gazprom and it is now functioning through the Turkish Stream and Balkan Stream," Bajatovic said. He added that Srbijagas's priority would be to ensure that additionally quantities of gas were arranged.