Serbia seeks new gas deal with Russia at 'best price in Europe'

By Gleb Bryanski

ST PETERSBURG (Reuters) -Serbia is working on a new gas deal with Russia and will get the best price in Europe, the head of its state gas company told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

Dusan Bajatovic, the head of Srbijagas, also said Europe - just like Serbia - would have no other option but to go back to Russian gas to cover its energy needs at reasonable cost.

Serbia is one of the last remaining Russian gas buyers in Europe, receiving around 3 billion cubic metres last year. It is seeking membership of the European Union, which this week proposed a legally binding ban on imports of Russian gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) by the end of 2027.

Bajatovic said the new contract with Gazprom would run from September, with a duration of either three or 10 years.

"The issue of price is more or less resolved. It will be very good, it will be the best price in Europe," Bajatovic said. He declined to give details, as commercial talks were still going on.

Bajatovic said the future of the gas market would be shaped by Russia and the United States, as producers, and China as a major consumer, and Europe would have to live with it.

"It is mathematics. You cannot solve the equation of gas supplies to Europe at acceptable prices without the Russian gas," he said on the sidelines of Russia's main economic conference in St Petersburg, which has been shunned by most Western CEOs because of the war in Ukraine.

Bajatovic said he fully supported the idea of U.S. investors buying the Nord Stream gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea, which was severely damaged by explosions in 2022 and has not delivered gas since then.

(Reporting by Gleb Bryanski; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and David Evans)