The US ambassador promised Serbia to help “move away from Russia” in energy

BELGRADE, 11 Oct – PRIME. US Ambassador to Serbia Christopher Hill promised to help official Belgrade “move away from Russia” on the issue of energy supply, N1 TV channel reports.

Hungarian government speaker Zoltan Kovacs said yesterday that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had reached an agreement on the construction of an oil pipeline that would allow Serbia to receive Urals oil from the Druzhba pipeline. Earlier, Vučić said that the country, under an agreement with Hungary, would build a 128-kilometer oil pipeline to connect with Hungarian oil pipelines.

“I don’t know if I’m in a position to comment on this, as I don’t know all the details, but what Serbia needs is to diversify its energy supply sources and in this sense move away from Russia, which has shown itself to be a very unreliable supplier,” Hill is quoted by the N1 channel.

It is noted that the American diplomat promised to work to “help Serbia move away from Russia.”

European Commission spokesman Daniel Sheridan Ferry, commenting on the intention of Hungary and Serbia to build a pipeline that will allow Belgrade to receive oil from Druzhba, said on Tuesday that the EU countries, which, as an exception, were able to temporarily continue to import Russian pipeline oil, cannot re-export it to other states. From December 5, EU sanctions will come into force, which prohibit the import of Russian crude oil to the Union countries by sea. A temporary exception has been made for a number of EU countries (including Hungary), which receive Russian oil through the pipeline.

In early September, the finance ministers of the G7 countries confirmed their intention to introduce price restrictions on Russian oil. It is planned that the price limit will be introduced on December 5 for oil and on February 5, 2023 for petroleum products. Russian officials responded by warning that countries that would apply the limits would be left without oil exports from Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin, commenting on the West’s idea to limit prices for Russian energy resources, said that Russia would not supply anything abroad if it would be contrary to its own interests.

On October 6, the EU introduced a new package of sanctions, which, among other things, includes a ban on the sea transportation of Russian oil to third countries in excess of the oil price ceiling, as well as a ban on related services.

The EU has repeatedly stressed that the actual price ceiling for Russian oil can only be introduced in cooperation with the G7 and other partners in the international arena, taking into account the interests of the countries that purchase Russian energy resources. The Euractiv publication, citing European diplomats, reported that the EU does not plan to independently set a price ceiling for Russian oil for transportation to third countries by sea, it will use the level that the G7 countries will previously agree on.