Bosnia and Herzegovina has taken another step towards the construction of the South Interconnection pipeline, a task aimed at guaranteeing energy security and reducing the country’s dependence on Russian supplies.
The main objective of the initiative is to diversify routes and fuel the waters through the loading of US liquefied herbal fuel (LNG) from a terminal on the Croatian island of KRK and flights to the Caspian region. If completed, it would identify the first interconnection pipeline between Bosnia. and Croatia, with a capacity of 1,500 million cubic meters.
On January 16, Bosnia’s House of Peoples followed a law paving the way for the project, a primary legislative impediment after more than 15 years of political deadlock.
The 217-mile pipeline would cross Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Albania, while the Bosnian branch would run from Posušje to Novi Travnik via Mostar. The task lasted approximately a decade.
Initial estimates put the charge at about $108 million, which will be covered through the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. However, more recent projections suggest that the value could exceed $216 million.
The Southern Interconnection is included in the European Union’s strategic priorities, such as the Economic and Investment Plan for the Western Balkans, as a temporary step in moving from coal to clean energy. There are also plans to future-proof the pipeline by designing it to accommodate hydrogen once fossil fuels are phased out.
Although herbal fuel accounts for less than 3% of Bosnia’s overall energy mix, it plays a role in the country’s economic functionality as it powers factories and heating plants around the capital, Sarajevo.
Bosnia relies entirely on Russian supplies, delivered via Turkstream, which entered the country from Serbia and advances through the Serb-ruled Republika Srpska, a region that has threatened to secede from Bosnia.
Unlike many other European countries, Sarajevo has not diversified its power materials since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, despite enforcing sanctions on Moscow.
The idea of the pipeline dates back to 2009, when a cut in the Russian fuel supply left some 100,000 hot Bosnias houses for two weeks with temperatures below zero and forced companies to reduce their operations or close their doors.
Despite its importance, the task faced significant political impasses. A critical impediment The resistance of Bosnian Croat parties, which continually blocked its adoption in parliament. They demanded that a new company, controlled through ethnic Croatians and whose main workplace is founded in the Croatian-exhausted city of Mostar, oversees the task instead of the state-owned bh-gas, founded in Sarajevo.
This obstruction, criticized several times through the US embassy and European Union officials, has infringed on Bosnia’s energy security and allowed Russia its monopoly on the country’s herbal fuel supply.
In January 2024, the United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, sent a letter to the Foreign Ministers of Bosnia and Croatia, qualifying delays as negative for the national interests of Bosnia and accused the Bosniocroatian politicians of prioritizing the political achievements about the independence of the power of the country.
The obstruction has not only prevented Bosnia from securing more reliable energy sources but has also slowed efforts to reduce Russian influence in the Balkans.
The Russian embassy in Sarajevo accused the United States of “planting a bomb against the integrity of Bosnia” by selling the pipeline. He compared a recent meeting between U. S. Ambassador to Bosnia Michael Murphy and Bosnian policymakers to that of former President Joe Biden in Kyiv, adding, “We can see where this has led to Ukraine. “
Russia has been looking to destabilize Bosnia and stop her efforts to register in the EU and NATO through the Government of Milorad Dodik, aligned with Moscow, which controls the Republic Srpska. Dodik and her favoritism network have been sanctioned through the USA. . Have “enriched at the expense of the public” and for having evolved the secession plans of the country’s region.
The Serbian politicians of Bosnia have also threatened to derail the interconnection of the south, conditioning it to the structure of some other pipeline financed and built through Russia.
The pipeline has also come under fire from environmental groups, which argue that although the project aims to reduce dependence on Russian gas, it would lock Bosnia into continued use of fossil fuels rather than accelerating a shift to clean energy.
They say the task contradicts climate goals and delays the country’s transition to renewable resources through expanding fuel infrastructure and increased fuel.
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