According to Reuters article published on January 12, 2023, the government of Bosnia's autonomous Bosniak-Croat Federation on Thursday agreed to cut the price of natural gas by 9.6% from Jan. 1, citing lower oil prices on world markets, cuts in gas consumption in Europe and a relatively mild winter.
The government acted on a request by Energoinvest, Bosnia's major importer of gas from Russian state-owned producer Gazprom (GAZP.MM), it said in a statement.
Since the start of 2021, Gazprom has been delivering natural gas to Serbia and Bosnia through the TurkStream pipeline and a new route crossing Turkey and Bulgaria.
The government said it agreed to cut the wholesale price of natural gas for distributive companies to 990 Bosnian marka ($544)/1.000 Sm3 from Jan. 1, not including value added tax, from 1,095 marka.
The Federation government raised prices of natural gas quarterly over the past year after Gazprom increased them, based on the nine-month change in the price of oil derivatives. The prices last November were up about 100% from the previous year.
The Federation, which along with a Serb Republic makes up Bosnia, is the main gas consumer in the Balkan country.
Bosnia has no gas reserves and natural gas accounts for up to 8% of its energy use. It relies on Russian supplies to get around 400 million cubic metres of gas it needs annually.
(1$ = 1.820 Bosnian marka)
