Almir Becarevic, Minister of Communal Economy, Infrastructure, Spatial Planning, Construction and Protection of Canton Sarajevo (CS), as the guest presenter of yesterday’s session of independent intellectuals “Circle 99” on the topic “Eastern Connection vs. Southern Connection?”, stated that in the next 7 to 15 days, the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) will very likely approve the project of a new eastern gas interconnection for BiH, which implies reliance on the supply of gas from Russia.
There is a great hurry for this to happen, Becarevic emphasizes, citing two reasons, in his opinion – the first is that BiH Presidency member Zeljka Cvijanovic will address the United Nations (UN) in the coming period, and the second is that the President of Republika Srpska (RS) Milorad Dodik will visit Moscow in the next 20-30 days with this “gift” which means not only a gas pipeline but also a gas thermal power plant, that is, a type of politics.
From the Russian side, Dodik will expect loans that will not only help him in the realization of this project but also in the financial stability of the RS itself.
As for the southern interconnection, there are two options, Becarevic points out. He is not sure which one will get the green light because there are still strong big lines that want a southern interconnection to be realized by a new company in Herzegovina, the Southern Gas Interconnection, and the intention that the company BH Gas will actually be kicked out of the project even though it brought it to the main stage.
The second proposal is also on the table and tentatively means that BH Gas be transformed into some kind of hybrid with a part of the company in Mostar whose executive director would sit there controlling the flows, so that, in Becarevic’s opinion, it would generally mean division on a national basis.
A month or two ago, the Croatian National Assembly (HNS) issued a declaration declaring the southern gas interconnection project to be of national interest to Croats.
This “stung the ears” of Becarevic, because as a rule, such projects have a state designation, since gas pipelines cross the state border.
“Both the eastern and southern gas interconnections are something that implies the decisions of both the Council of Ministers of BiH and the Parliament and Presidency of BiH, so these two projects have been really opposed for decades. The New Eastern Interconnection dates back to 2005-2006 as the Sava Project. Now it is no longer called that, but the New Eastern Interconnection, and would rely exclusively on Turkish flow and Russian gas. The southern interconnection is directly connected to the LG terminal, that is, what is even more important, to the project that I hope will start soon, the connection to Azerbaijani gas,” Becarevic stated.
BiH, that is BH Gas, has drawn the southern gas interconnection in all gas maps as a branch from that second project. According to Becarevic, its realization would mean full security of gas supply, unlike the New Eastern Interconnection, which would only mean a new gas entry from the same direction and would not guarantee the security of supply but political interference.
