FOCUS – Serbia seeks extension of gas deal with Russia

BELGRADE, September 26 /ATSH-AFP/ – Serbia hopes to secure a new extension of its gas supply agreement with Russia, President Aleksandar Vucic said Saturday after a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The current gas deal expires on September 30, while Belgrade aims to reach a longer-term contract.

Serbia remains heavily dependent on Russian gas, but since the end of the previous three-year deal in the summer of 2025, it has failed to secure a new long-term contract and has relied on short-term extensions.

“I believe that after today’s conversation the agreement will be extended and we will secure stable gas supplies,” Vucic wrote on Instagram.

According to the Serbian president, the country will continue to benefit from a favorable price of 318 euros per 1,000 cubic meters, while the market price, he said, is currently around 868 euros per 1,000 cubic meters.

Despite its EU membership aspirations, Serbia is among the few European countries that continue to maintain close relations with the Kremlin after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Belgrade also faces U.S. sanctions on the country’s largest oil company, “Petroleum Industry of Serbia” (NIS), due to majority Russian ownership.

The United States demands a full withdrawal of Russian ownership for the sanctions to be lifted.

For months, talks have been underway on the sale of 56% of NIS’s Russian-held shares to Hungarian energy giant MOL.

The latest exemption from U.S. sanctions expires on September 30, the same date Washington has set as the deadline for completing the sale.

Vucic said the phone call with Putin also covered the NIS issue, expressing hope for finding a solution acceptable to both sides.

The conversation with Putin was among Vucic’s latest diplomatic contacts as president. He has announced he will resign on September 27 to run for prime minister, as part of the early parliamentary elections prompted by nearly two years of student-led anti-corruption protests, according to ATSH-AFP.