Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that Serbia is looking to make a deal with Kosovo regarding the purchase of significant amount of lignite, which could be paid in electricity deliveries for Kosovo.
President Vucic said that this is one of the options, and if Kosovo authorities reject it, Serbia is prepared to regularly purchase the coal. He said that Serbia recently bought 100,000 tons of coal from BiH coalmine Banovici and is in negotiations with Bulgaria, Romania and Greece over coal purchases. In April, EPS already agreed the supply of 300,000 tons of coal in 2022 from Montenegrin Pljevlja coalmine.
Last month, the Government approved EPS to import 4 million tons of coal for its use, as it is estimated that the utility will lack that amount of coal by the end of 2023.
Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Zorana Mihajlovic said earlier this week that Serbia will need to spend probably up to a billion euros by the end of the year for the import of electricity and coal due to poor management at state-owned power utility EPS, adding that normal supply of coal from domestic coalmines is expected in early 2024.
