Serbia: Srbijagas CEO claims Serbia and Russia will have equal rights in the “South Stream Serbia”

Published on 9. December 2013., News Serbia Energy

General Director of “Srbijagas” Dusan Bajatovic said that Serbia and Russia, regardless of not identical stake in the company “South Stream Serbia”, will completely equally manage the company. Bajatovic said that the Russian side, although it has 51 percent stake in the company, can not make any crucial decisions, such as changing company name or company headquarters without the consent of Serbia.

He could not explain why the ownership interest in the “South Stream” through Serbia is not 50 to 50 percent, as in all other countries through which the pipeline will pass, but he believes that there are two dominant theories: that Serbia thanked Russia for support on Kosovo in that way, the second is that such an arrangement was made in order the pipeline would be routed with greater length through our territory, which made Serbia a hub country.

“It is hard to deny the South Stream, because geo-strategic position of Serbia will be changed. If you have South Stream anyone will hardly be able to bomb us”, said Bajatovic, noting that the implementation of the project also ensures the long-term strategic energy supply, thereby and energy security, but also the intense inflow of Russian capital.

Responding to criticism over the fact that a joint Serbian-Russian company was established with its headquarters in Switzerland, Bajatovic said that “there is no economic risk that there money will be monitored and that anything will be done unprofessionally, because the project will be under the scrutiny of the EU”.

Bajatovic specified that the construction of “South Stream” through Serbia will employ 5,000 people and that works will last two years, and that the full capacity of the gas flow to Italy will be established in 2017.

Source; Serbia Energy/Srbijagas