Serbia to Buy Electricity from Azerbaijan ‘On Favourable Terms’

The president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, said on Sunday that his country will sell electricity to Serbia on "favourable terms", Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic's office announced.

"President Vucic asked President Aliyev for help in providing secure, sufficient amounts of electricity, and President Aliyev came out to meet that request and said that Serbia has been approved for an interstate agreement on the purchase of electricity from Azerbaijan on favourable terms," Vucic's office said in a press release.

On the 25th anniversary of Serbia establishing diplomatic relations with Azerbaijan, Vucic spoke on the phone with Aliyev and asked him for help with electricity supplies, the statement said.

Like many other countries, Serbia has had serious problems with electricity and gas supplies this year. Some blame has fallen on the management of Elektroprivreda Srbije, EPS, the state-owned electricity company that had major problems with many of its facilities over the year.

Due to the global energy crisis, prices have also gone up and the deal with Azerbaijan is intended to ease the pressure on Serbian state coffers.

On June 1, representatives of Serbia and energy-rich Azerbaijan signed an agreement on energy cooperation, emphasising gas supplies, for which Serbia is currently completely dependent on Russia.

Serbia is working on diversifying its supply sources and Azerbaijan is one of its possible alternative sources.

For gas to be pumped, the Serbia-Bulgaria gas interconnector, a pipeline connected Sofia in Bulgaria and Nis in Serbia, must first be completed. The Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Zorana Mihajlovic announced in June that Serbia has started the construction of, which will be finished next year.

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