North Macedonia and Kosovo in talks over possible exchange of coal, electricity
Pristina, 11 August 2022 (MIA) – CEO of Kosovo Energy Corporation (KEC), Nagip Krasniqi, said a tender for the sale of coal will soon be announced, adding that Power Plants of North Macedonia (ESM) was among those expressing interest in purchase, MIA’s Pristina correspondent reports.
In an interview with Pristina’s KTV on Wednesday, Krasniqi said the corporations of the two countries have been in negotiations for the exchange of coal and electricity, but there are no concrete agreements so far. According to him, among other things, this is due to the high demand for electricity in North Macedonia.
Krasniqi noted that KEC has informed the Macedonian partners that a tender will be announced, while they have expressed interest in buying Kosovo coal.
“We’ve had talks with the officials of the Macedonian energy corporation about the possibility of exchanging coal and electricity, but at this point we don’t see many opportunities to realize such exchange, because they also have large demands for electricity. However, talks continue and we can expect something like that in the future,” Krasniqi said.
He added the criteria for the tender have been set, but the market will tell later what will be the sale price of the Kosovo coal.
He noted that Kosovo, however, was not ready to export large quantities of coal, and denied reports in certain media outlets that there have been requests for coal import from Serbia.
“Our equipment and all the infrastructure is not ready for the export of large quantities of coal, but there are demands on the market due to the global energy crisis. As a corporation we haven’t received any requests from anyone from Serbia who would be looking for coal,” said Krasniqi.
