Serbia Pledges to Repay EUR 190 M Debt to Russian Gazprom Neft's Unit NIS by 2018

Serbia will repay EUR 20 M of its outstanding debt for Russian gas deliveries to Gazprom Neft by the end of the year, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic has said.

"Another EUR 6.5 M will be paid early next year," Vucic said at a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Belgrade on Friday.

Belgrade also owes 23 billion dinars (about EUR 190 M) to Serbian oil company NIS majority owned by Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Russian energy giant Gazprom.

" "One fifth of the debt we will pay immediately while the remainder will be taken over as public debt and will be paid in five instalments during the period 2016 to 2018," Vucic said.

Russia supplied Serbia 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas last year under a ten-year deal signed in 2013.

Vucic also said that negotiations about cutting prices for Russian gas supplied to Serbia's chemical plants have entered the final phase.  

In a separate project, Russia and Serbia have agreed to double the capacity of Serbian underground gas storage in Banatski Dvor to one billion cubic meters. The storage facility, majority owned by Gazprom, is one of the largest in southeastern Europe and plays an important role in ensuring the stability of Russian gas supplies to European customers.

Russia continues increasing its investment in Serbia which has already reached USD 4 B, Lavrov said at the news conference following a meeting with Vucic on the sidelines of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Belgrade on Thursday.

Vucic said that he expected many new arrangements to be agreed a visit of Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to Serbia, according to Tanjug.

Moscow and Belgrade are in the process of agreeing possible dates for the visit, Lavrov said.