January 29 (SeeNews) - Serbia plans to start the preparation of project documentation for the construction of gas pipelines to Kosovo's Pristina and to Montenegro this year, energy minister Zorana Mihajlovic said.
"Documentation will be made for gas links with Romania, Bosnia, Croatia. Documentation will also be made for the construction of a gas pipeline to Pristina, as well as for the construction of a gas pipeline to Montenegro. This gives Serbia the opportunity to receive gas from various suppliers," Mihajlovic said in a video file posted on the website of the Serbian section of the Voice of America earlier this week.
Serbia is interested in diversifying its natural gas supply sources and hopes to start imports through the EastMed pipeline and the interconnection it is building with Bulgaria, Mihajlovic said.
"We will try to become a transit corridor, we will not deny any route that should pass through Serbia," she added.
Earlier this month, Mihajlovic said Serbia expects to complete by the beginning of 2023 the construction of the gas link with Bulgaria, which will enable gas imports through EastMed, a planned pipeline connecting East Mediterranean energy resources to mainland Greece via Cyprus and Crete.
In December 2019, former energy minister Aleksandar Antic said Serbia also hopes to start receiving natural gas from the Southern Gas Corridor transporting gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field, through the interconnection with Bulgaria in 2023.