BELGRADE, Serbia, Sept. 30 (UPI) -- Serbian officials said they would reduce the sale price for the country's state-owned oil firm in exchange for Russian investment in a proposed gas pipeline.
The head of the New Serbia Party and former Minister of Infrastructures Velimir Ilic said Tuesday the price for the sale of Naftna Industrija Srbije "had to be exchanged" for the development of the South Stream natural gas pipeline through the country, Serbian news agency B92 said.
Ilic said Serbia did not have the $2.8 billion required for initial investments for the planned pipeline to bring Russian natural gas to Italy.
"We said that we did not have the funds for such an investment, and the Russians then said, 'All right, we will finance it and you will compensate us with a share of NIS,'" he said.
Ilic said if there was no deal for NIS, the pipeline instead would run through Romania and Hungary, leaving Belgrade without the estimated $286 million in annual revenue.
Parliament ratified a January agreement on energy with Russia Sept. 9.
