The possibility of an energy interconnection between North Macedonia and Serbia was discussed today by the Prime Ministers of the two countries, Christian Mickoski and Milos Vucevic, respectively, during the meeting they had today in Skopje.

As the prime ministers of the two countries stated, the possibility of building a natural gas pipeline between North Macedonia and Serbia, as an extension of the planned Greece-North Macedonia interconnector natural gas pipeline, was mainly considered. In this way, Serbia will be able to supply natural gas through Greece.

Christian Mickoski said the tender for the construction of the Greece-North Macedonia natural gas interconnector is in its final phase and the completion of the project will soon allow the extension of the pipeline to Serbia, with his country, he said, being upgraded to natural gas transit hub to Central Europe.

The Prime Minister of Serbia, Milos Vucevic estimated that by 2027 the natural gas pipeline between North Macedonia and Serbia could be built, which will allow, as he said, his country to have more options in terms of diversification in the sources and supply of natural gas gas.

The two countries, until Russia’s attack on Ukraine, were almost exclusively supplied with natural gas from Russia.

During today’s meeting of Milos Vucevic in Skopje, a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed between the Ministries of Energy of North Macedonia and Serbia.

The prime ministers of the two countries, during their meeting today, also discussed the possibility of building a fast railway line along Corridor X, which starts from Vienna and ends in Piraeus.

The operation of the oil products transport pipeline Thessaloniki-Skopje is just around the corner

Moreover, the Prime Minister of North Macedonia, Christian Mickoski, announced today that it is now a matter of time before the operation of the oil products transport pipeline Thessaloniki-Skopje.

“We are in the final phase of putting into operation the pipeline for transporting petroleum products, which connects our country with our southern neighbor (Greece). We consider that it would be a good starting point for this pipeline to be extended to our northern neighbor (Serbia) and thus secure another corridor,” said the Prime Minister of North Macedonia, after the meeting he had with the Prime Minister of Serbia, Milos Vucevic .

This oil pipeline was built in 2002, in order to connect the refineries of Thessaloniki with the refinery of the OKTA company in Skopje, which was acquired by ELPE (now Helleniq Energy) in 1998. The pipeline transported crude oil. In 2013, it ceased to operate when the ELPE deemed the activity of refining OKTA as unprofitable. Instead, the decision was made to utilize OKTA’s facilities in Skopje as a hub for supplying the Western Balkans with petroleum products. More specifically, HELLENIQ ENERGY’s design required the upgrading of the pipeline (which has been cleaned as it is no longer used for transporting crude oil) for the transport of finished diesel product from Greece to North Macedonia, which will be stored at the former OKTA refinery, which in intermediate has been converted to storage.

The implementation of this plan required the change of use of the pipeline so that instead of crude oil it would transport refined products (diesel). However, although OKTA’s facilities were modified to serve the new use and investments were made to modernize them, the pipeline remained inactive because the issuance of a change to its license by North Macedonia was delayed, while some other technical details were pending, obstacles that in the meantime they came and as Christian Mickoski reported today, the pipeline will soon be put into operation.

After the closure of the Thessaloniki-Skopje pipeline in 2013, North Macedonia is supplied with fuel by road, with the consequence that the cost of refueling is high. Also, transporting fuel by road makes smuggling easier, which “translates” into lost revenue.

With the reopening of the pipeline, North Macedonia could be supplied with high-quality fuel, and at a lower cost. At the same time, HELLENiQ ENERGY could make use of OKTA’s facilities as a fuel handling center in the wider region and mainly towards Kosovo and Serbia.

North Macedonia supplies fuel almost exclusively from Greece, mainly from the HELLENiQ ENERGY refinery in Thessaloniki.