Serbia – Romania: Memorandum Signed on Construction of Gas Pipeline Between Two Countries

Given the real prospect of depletion of Russian energy resources, landlocked Eastern European countries are trying to build new alliances with former partners from the socialist camp. Following Ukraine’s decision to completely block the transit of Russian oil through its territory, the same fate awaits Russian natural gas exports to Central and Eastern European consumers, from Austria to Slovakia, Hungary, and Serbia. The agreement between Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftohaz expires at the end of 2024, and the Kiev government has said it does not intend to extend it. According to Moscow, Ukrainian President Zelensky is exactly following the “recommendations” of the United States and the European Union, which are trying to limit the Kremlin’s revenues from hydrocarbon exports at any cost.

In this situation, Eastern and Southern European countries must act creatively to avoid a large-scale energy crisis. While Hungary is building a super nuclear power plant in Paksh with the partnership of Russian state agency Rosatom, Serbia on Monday, August 5, signed a memorandum of understanding with neighboring Romania to build an interstate gas pipeline. The document was signed by Serbian Minister of Mines and Energy Dubravka Dedovic Handanovic and Romanian Minister of Energy Sebastian Burduja.

“This strategic project will connect Serbia’s natural gas transportation system through the Mokrin technological hub in Romania with the BRUA (Bulgaria-Romania-Hungary-Austria) pipeline, opening new opportunities for diversifying Serbia’s energy sources and increasing gas price competitiveness,” Dedovic Handanovic said after the signing ceremony.

“The Arad-Mokrin Interconnector will play an important role in energy security and regional integration of energy markets. We want to start construction next year, so that this project becomes a reality by 2028 at the latest,” Burduja said for his part, emphasizing that thanks to these investments “Romania will benefit all Romanian citizens: a more competitive market that will provide consumers with the lowest price, energy security, and diversification of supply sources.”

The new agreement will allow Serbia to receive more Russian gas, which flows to Turkey, Bulgaria, Greece, North Macedonia, Romania, and Bosnia-Herzegovina through the Turkish Stream pipeline, which runs under the Black Sea and has been the target of Ukrainian terrorist attacks in recent years, similar to the explosions that destroyed two strings of the Nord Stream Baltic Sea pipeline.

Romania and Serbia said they would “make every possible effort to start the actual construction of the interconnector as early as 2025” with the aim of completing the strategic infrastructure in 2028. In this context, Burduja said that in the first quarter of 2024, “Romania supplied almost 30% of the natural gas of the entire European Union.” Without specifying, however, that it is Russian gas that the European Union – in words – has stopped consuming.