Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said at a press conference earlier that supplies of gas from Azerbaijan were halted due to issues at the Shah Deniz field.
"We received a notification from Azerbaijan that because of the force majeure circumstances and the problems they have, we cannot count on the 1.7 million cubic meters of gas our country was receiving every day anymore, starting today. Hopefully, the Azerbaijanis will rectify it in a month or two," Vucic said.
"However, government sources dispute his [Vucic's] assumption that it will take one or two months for supplies to resume, emphasizing that the situation is under control and temporary. [...] Supplies [to Serbia] are expected to resume very soon," the TV channel said.
According to the government sources, although supplies of gas from Azerbaijan were temporarily reduced due to a technical issue at the Shah Deniz Alpha platform, the Shah Deniz Bravo platform is fully functional and allows for uninterrupted gas supplies.
Earlier, BP-Azerbaijan, the technical operator for developing the Shah Deniz field told Interfax, that the company suspended operations at the Shah Deniz Alpha platform due to a malfunction in a subsea pipeline used for transporting condensate.
"There are no issues with the platform itself. The technical problem occurred in the subsea pipeline that transports condensate. The pipeline connects the Alpha platform to the Sangachal terminal. For this reason, we have suspended operations at this platform," BP-Azerbaijan said.
All necessary measures are being undertaken to resolve the issue as quickly as possible, it said.
The contract for developing the Shah Deniz field was signed in 1996. The current ownership structure includes British BP plc (operator - 29.99%), Lukoil (19.99%), Turkey's TPAO (19%), Azerbaijan's Cenub Qaz Dehlizi (16.02%), Iran's NICO (10%) and Hungary's MVM (5%).
Currently, gas and condensate production at the field is carried out from the Alpha platform as part of Stage-1 and the Bravo platform under Stage-2. Gas production began in December 2006.
Azerbaijan has contracts for supplies of gas with ten European countries, namely, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Serbia, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, and North Macedonia. It has long-term contracts with fixed supply volumes with three countries - Italy, Greece and Bulgaria - and contracts without specific volumes with the others.
As reported, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and the Serbian company Srbijagas signed an agreement on the supply of Azerbaijani gas to Serbia on November 15, 2023. The agreement provides for the supply of up to 400 million cubic meters of gas per year from Azerbaijan to Serbia in 2024-2026, with the possibility of increasing the volume of supplies from 2027. In addition, on September 26, 2024, SOCAR and Srbijagas signed a contract for the purchase and sale of additional Azerbaijani gas to Serbia in the amount of 1 mcm per day between November 1, 2024 and April 1, 2025.
