Serbia to receive Hungarian gas

Hungary will deliver between one and two million cubic meters of gas to Serbia between 17:00 and 19:00 CET today, reports the Hungarian MTI agency. The agency says it has received the information from Hungarian PM Ferenc Gyurcsany's cabinet. Serbia to receive Hungarian gas It was announced earlier today that President Boris Tadic had reached an agreement with Gyurcsany to receive a certain amount of gas from that country's reserves. During the winter period, Serbia requires around 10 million cubic meters a day. After gas deliveries to Serbia were suspended, citizens in a number of the country’s biggest cities and towns were left without central heating due to the inability of certain thermo power plants to use heating oil. Tadic said that he had reached an agreement with Hungarian Prime Minister Gyurcsany for the country to send between one two million cubic meters of gas per day to Serbia in the coming days. He said that this volume of gas did not meet all of Serbia’s gas needs however, since Serbia needed an additional three million cubic meters a day in order to meet its most immediate needs. The president said that Serbia was launching a new diplomatic offensive in order to secure more gas. “We need to try and find two to three million cubic meters of gas and we have launched a new foreign policy offensive in search of new sources of gas,” Tadic told journalists after donating blood. He said that Serbia would “try to secure the gas through pipelines in Belarus, but there are a lot of consumers and hungry mouths along the road to Serbia and there are no guarantees that we will succeed.” The president said that the crisis would not be overcome until Russia and Ukraine settled their differences, and called on Serbian citizens to save energy and behave responsibly. “I expect the situation between Russia and Ukraine to be resolved within a week,” Tadic stressed. The most at-risk towns in Serbia, whose plants are unable to transfer to crude, are Kikinda, Becej, Beocin, Novi Sad, Pancevo, Velika Plana, Kovin, Jagodina and part of Cacak, said Serbian Thermo Plant Association Director Milovan Lecic. He said that plants in those eight towns had shut down completely and could only run on gas. Lecic added that consumers in those towns could use electrical heating or other forms of fuel. Meanwhile, all thermo plants in Pancevo stopped operating early on Thursday leaving around 40,000 citizens in 11,500 homes without central heating. According to Zoran Bozanic, the technical director of the Grejanje public utility company, the problem is that Pancevo, which is home to an oil refinery, does not have a single thermo plant that can operate on any other form of fuel. In Novi Sad, three thermo power plants had to be completely shut down overnight, leaving some 80,000 customers without central heating. These were the only three plants in the city unable to use crude oil as an alternative energy form for the production of heat energy. Nor are the plants able to produce hot water, while homes were left without any gas supply. Boris Tadic (FoNet, archive)

Serbia to receive Hungarian gas

It was announced earlier today that President Boris Tadić had reached an agreement with Gyurcsany to receive a certain amount of gas from that country's reserves.

During the winter period, Serbia requires around 10 million cubic meters a day.

After gas deliveries to Serbia were suspended, citizens in a number of the country’s biggest cities and towns were left without central heating due to the inability of certain thermo power plants to use heating oil.

Tadić said that he had reached an agreement with Hungarian Prime Minister Gyurcsany for the country to send between one two million cubic meters of gas per day to Serbia in the coming days.

He said that this volume of gas did not meet all of Serbia’s gas needs however, since Serbia needed an additional three million cubic meters a day in order to meet its most immediate needs.

The president said that Serbia was launching a new diplomatic offensive in order to secure more gas.

“We need to try and find two to three million cubic meters of gas and we have launched a new foreign policy offensive in search of new sources of gas,” Tadić told journalists after donating blood.

He said that Serbia would “try to secure the gas through pipelines in Belarus, but there are a lot of consumers and hungry mouths along the road to Serbia and there are no guarantees that we will succeed.”

The president said that the crisis would not be overcome until Russia and Ukraine settled their differences, and called on Serbian citizens to save energy and behave responsibly.

“I expect the situation between Russia and Ukraine to be resolved within a week,” Tadić stressed.

The most at-risk towns in Serbia, whose plants are unable to transfer to crude, are Kikinda, Bečej, Beočin, Novi Sad, Pančevo, Velika Plana, Kovin, Jagodina and part of Čačak, said Serbian Thermo Plant Association Director Milovan Lečić.

He said that plants in those eight towns had shut down completely and could only run on gas.

Lečić added that consumers in those towns could use electrical heating or other forms of fuel.

Meanwhile, all thermo plants in Pančevo stopped operating early on Thursday leaving around 40,000 citizens in 11,500 homes without central heating.

According to Zoran Božanić, the technical director of the Grejanje public utility company, the problem is that Pančevo, which is home to an oil refinery, does not have a single thermo plant that can operate on any other form of fuel.

In Novi Sad, three thermo power plants had to be completely shut down overnight, leaving some 80,000 customers without central heating.

These were the only three plants in the city unable to use crude oil as an alternative energy form for the production of heat energy.

Nor are the plants able to produce hot water, while homes were left without any gas supply.