Azerbaijan, Serbia to sign energy cooperation agreements

Azerbaijan and Serbia will sign two important agreements in the energy sector on November 15.

The documents will be signed following the meeting of Azerbaijani and Serbian Energy Ministers Parviz Shahbazov and Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic in Baku, Report informs.

In particular, a Memorandum of Understanding is expected to be signed between the Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Mining and Energy of the Republic of Serbia on promoting cooperation between the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and Srbijagas, as well as an agreement on the sale of gas between SOCAR and Srbijagas.

The information was also confirmed by the Ministry of Energy of Azerbaijan.

It should be noted that the construction of the new natural gas interconnector between Serbia and Bulgaria started on February 1, 2022.

The construction project of the Nis-Dimitrovgrad-Bulgaria interconnector will be partially financed by European Union (EU) grants. This financing will amount to 49.6 million euros, with the addition of a soft loan of 25 million euros from the European Investment Bank. The part of the gas pipeline passing through the territory of Serbia will be paid for by this state.

Serbia has allocated 7.5 million euros for the project so far. The interconnector will connect the city of Niš with Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, the project capacity of the new pipeline will be 1.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year.

According to the project, the new gas pipeline will provide an additional 80% capacity compared to Serbia's current annual needs, which is about 2.4 billion cubic meters of gas per year.