Russia Warns Bosnia to Switch Off Gas Supply Over Unpaid Bills – Daily

Text of report by Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA

Sarajevo, 23 October: Bosnia-Hercegovina could stay without Russian gas supply by 30 November, Almir Becarevic, director of BH Gas [Bosnian main gas company] has said.

He said that Russians have warned them that they will stop the gas supply after the first unpaid invoice.

Becarevic said that BH Gas cannot pay any invoice from its own reserves only and while local distributors continue to postpone the repayment of their debts towards BH Gas, especially if the cold weather causing increased gas demand continues.

According to him, in the past seven days Sarajevogas [local utility company] paid about 1m KM [Bosnian currency convertible mark = 0.72 US dollars], and Zvornik stan [local utility company] paid 30,000 KM, while Grijanje [local utility company] from Zenica hasn’t paid a single mark.

He warned the distributors to fulfil their obligations towards BH Gas and added that the daily gas demand is three times higher in comparison with the projected demand.

He told Dnevni avaz [Sarajevo-based daily] that these three distributors owe about 6m KM for the gas already supplied to them.

He added that last Sunday Sarajevo used 750,000 m3 of gas, with another 900,000 m3 used yesterday [Monday]. This is the highest daily usage in the past several years.

Originally published by SRNA news agency, Bijeljina, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 0840 23 Oct 07.

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