Northern Macedonia: Greece will pay for natural gas in rubles – It can save us too
Until the relations of Northern Macedonia with Russia improve, we should hope for the mercy of our neighbors, especially Greece, which maintains relations with Russia and can supply us with natural gas through Bulgaria, notes the website vecer.press of the North. Macedonia (photo, above vecer.press).
Will pay in rubles
Greece will pay for the gas in rubles and will help Bulgaria and Northern Macedonia as long as it does not ban Russia, the article added, among other things.
And it is stressed that the authorities reassure and assure that at present there is gas and alternatives if Russia decides to ban its export to the country.
Russia’s Gazprom decided to cut off gas to Bulgaria two days ago because the state refused to pay in rubles.
Experts comment that there is gas at the moment, but in case of interruption we should hope for help from the neighbors, vecer.press points out.
Of concern, however, is the fact that Bulgaria does not guarantee a reliable supply of natural gas to Northern Macedonia.
The vecer.press article entitled “Greece will save us and hand over a plane to us only if Russia does not ban it”
“We will not have a problem with natural gas, because Greece maintains relations with Russia. “If Russia does not ban, Greece can be supplied and delivered natural gas to Bulgaria and Northern Macedonia,” energy expert Giorgi Manaskov told vecer.press.
“Greece can”
He added, however, that the agreement may stipulate that it should not supply aircraft to “enemy countries”, so we can not receive Russian gas. “But Greece can, if it wants to, buy natural gas from Cyprus or Azerbaijan, which is more expensive and will cost more to the Bulgarians, and indirectly to citizens and companies of Northern Macedonia.”
According to him, at the moment there is no alternative and we must look for ways to improve relations with Russia to make a long-term supply of gas.
“The country is currently completely dependent on Russian gas, because there is only one interconnection, since our pipeline system is connected to the Bulgarian one, through which gas is currently transported only from Russia,” he said.
However, the situation is complicated and the decision that can be made in the coming days is not known. Authorities say they are ready and have corresponding alternatives to any decision that could be made.
Economy Minister Kresnik Bekteshi assures that there will be no problems with the delivery of natural gas, that we have arranged all the services.
From the TAP pipeline
“It should not do that (s.s. means Bulgaria), according to the contract and the possibilities of the pipeline. We have quantities determined for the needs of the country and the transmission network must be operational. “This means that if the Russian Federation does not decide to highlight the delivery of natural gas to Northern Macedonia, the delivery must be done continuously and regularly,” Bekteshi said.
He stressed that the cross-border quantities in the interconnection with Bulgaria are committed until 2030 by “Gazprom”.
In the event that the agreement between “Bugartransgaz” and “Gazprom” terminates in the part of the cross-border quantities committed in our interconnection with the Republic of Bulgaria, then we can freely import natural gas through the interconnection line that the Republic of Bulgaria has with the Republic of Greece, which is connected to the TAP pipeline and supplies gas from Azerbaijan.
According to university professor Konstantin Dimitrov, if Macedonian companies find a way to continue to pay for gas in Russian rubles through various channels, the supply will be uninterrupted. Otherwise, there will be problems.
And the largest importers
Even Europe’s largest gas importers are preparing to agree to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demand that they pay for gas in rubles.
Major gas distributors in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Slovakia plan to open Ruble accounts with Gazprombank in Switzerland to meet Russia’s request for a gas payment in rubles.
This group includes the two largest importers of Russian gas – the German “Uniper” and the Austrian OMV.
Source: vecer.press, echedoros-a.gr