The priority of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) should be the rapid construction of an alternative gas supply route, most likely the southern interconnection from Split, it was pointed out in the roundtable discussion “The role and importance of natural gas in BiH energy – current situation and development trends” yesterday in Sarajevo.
The President of the BiH Committee of the International Council on Large Electric Systems (CIGRE), Edhem Bicakcic, stated that this would enable double supply, and BiH could take a more serious approach to the development of distribution systems.
”BiH will rely on gas in the long run for its strategic and environmental benefits,” Bicakcic states.
He added that LNG terminals in Croatia and Greece are also interesting for BiH because liquefied gas is now competitive with Russian gas coming from Turkey.
Also, Bicakcic believes that BiH can and should lease certain gas storage facilities in the world in which it would keep winter reserves, but also examine the possibilities of storage in the country.
He specified that BiH consumes 230 million cubic meters of gas a year, and most of the consumption is concentrated in the winter period due to the heating of Sarajevo.
Several industrial consumers have a small share of total consumption.
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is interested in various energy sources, including gas from the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Alexandroupolis in northern Greece, whose construction began on May 3rd.
This was mentioned for Radio Free Europe (RFE) by the entity ministries of energy, as well as in companies that import gas in BiH.
The terminal in Greece should start operating in 2023, and gas will be delivered there mainly from Azerbaijan and the United States (U.S.).
In order for that gas to reach the users in BiH, it is necessary, among other things, to complete the construction of the gas interconnection between Serbia and Bulgaria, which began in February, said the company “Gas Res”, which imports this energy source in BiH entity Republika Srpska (RS).
“In order to use gas from that area, it is necessary to fulfill a number of preconditions. The construction of the Nis-Dimitrovgrad gas pipeline has begun in the length of some 100 and a few kilometers, then it should be connected from Dimitrovgrad to Sofia, that terminal should be built… in the foreseeable future that gas will not be available to RS, “ told Ljubo Glamocic, director of Gas Res.
From “Energoinvest”, a company that supplies gas to other BiH entity, the Federation of BiH (FBiH), pointedout that a new terminal is an important event for the entire region, including BiH.
“After the construction of this terminal, which is planned for the end of 2023 with a capacity of 5.5 billion cubic meters of gas, this may be one of the additional supply options for FBiH in the future. We are in contact with representatives of the European Union (EU) Energy Community on this topic, ” they say in” Energoinvest”.
For now, BiH is completely dependent on imported gas from Russia, which arrives in the country through the so-called Turk stream, and it enters the country only at one point, at the entrance terminal in Sepak near Zvornik, on the border between BiH and Serbia.
Regarding the plan of gas diversification in the Federation of BiH, the Southern Interconnection has long been mentioned, which would connect BiH with the gas pipeline system in the south of Croatia – but also the LNG terminal on the island of Krk, in the north of the Adriatic Sea.
RS is working on the “New Eastern Interconnection”, the gas connection between RS and Serbia, and the representatives of the companies “Srbijagas” and “Gas Res” signed the agreement on gasification on March 16 last year.
In 2022, natural gas from other countries, including the U.S., could replace about 60 billion cubic meters of Russian gas, the European Commission announced earlier, RSE writes.
Director of Energoinvest Bisera Hadzaljevic emphasized that Bosnia and Herzegovina currently has only one supply route, ie that all gas comes from Russia.
“The existing contracts are stable, there are no problems with supply, and new arrangements have yet to be agreed. As a supplier, we can get all the quantities that the Federation of BiH needs, however, it is a question of price,” she said.
“We are easily discussing the LNG terminals that are being built, the terminal in Greece is under construction, it will certainly last for the next two years, the terminal on Krk exists, for now there is not enough LNG required. I don’t think there will be any significant changes in the next two years. I have no dilemmas about supply, but I have about the price, and that is what worries us,” said Hadžialjevic.
The president of the Croatian Professional Gas Association, Dalibor Pudic, said that the LNG terminal, which provided security, had started operating in 2021.
“We have a good infrastructure, our gas production is relatively good compared to EU countries, where most countries import gas almost 100 percent. Compared to the period ten years ago, we produced almost all quantities of Croatian consumption, today we cover only 30 percent of Croatia’s gas needs,” said Pudic.
By the way, Croatia is the country that has the highest degree of independence in the region, because it received liquefied gas from the United States and Qatar through the terminal on Krk. Energoinvest reports that one of the goals in BiH is the construction of a southern interconnection that would enable direct access to gas from Krk, Avaz reports.
E.Dz.
