Natural gas

By the adoption of the new Energy Law (“Official Gazette of RS”, No. 145/14 and 95/18 –another law) in the end of 2014, the energy field in the local legislation was harmonised with the provisions of the Third Energy Legislation Package of the European Union and, thereby, the process of introduction of competition in the energy sector in Serbia was continued in order to increase the efficiency of the sector via market mechanisms in electricity production and supply, while economic regulation of electricity transmission and distribution as natural monopolies still remained.

In line with the Law, all final natural gas customers are entitled to select their supplier freely in the market. Households and small natural gas customers are entitled to it since January 1, 2015, but they are also still entitled to public supply.

Customers who are not entitled to public supply buy natural gas from licenced suppliers in the open market. The final customer who is not entitled to public supply for reasons prescribed by Article 302 of the Energy Law) is entitled to the supply of the last resort in the period of 60 days during which the customer is obliged to find a new supply (otherwise, the system operator is obliged to suspend natural gas delivery). The price of the supply of the last resort is, as a rule, higher than the market prices, since, pursuant to the Article 303 of the Energy Law, it cannot be below average price at which the transmission system operator sells natural gas for system balancing purposes.