Coal, natural gas crucial for energy stability of Federation of BiH

It is necessary to increase coal production and develop gas infrastructure to secure energy stability of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, said the entity’s Minister of Energy, Mining and Industry Vedran Lakić.

Vedran Lakić pointed to the coal production weakening trend in BiH over the past 15 years. It is threatening the entire energy system, he added.

Coal production must be increased within three to five years so that state-owned power utility Elektroprivreda BiH (EPBiH) wouldn’t need to buy electricity on the market and jeopardize its business, in the minister’s words quoted by Akta.

He stressed that the number of employees in EPBiH including coal mines decreased from 10,291 to 5,500 and said every mine is suffering financial losses after a period of weak investments and due to lowered efficiency.

The new collective agreement for miners should help boost coal production

The key to safeguarding the energy sector of the Federation of BiH, one of the two political entities of BiH, is to increase production in domestic mines to ensure sufficient quantities of coal for thermal power plants, Lakić pointed out.

He recalled that the Government of the Federation of BiH approved the new two-year collective agreement on the rights and obligations of employers and workers in the mining sector. In his words, the deal improves incomes and rights of the employees.

New gas pipelines are badly needed

The agreement guarantees better conditions through a linear increase in wages, payment for meals and transport and a bonus on Miner’s Day, the minister claims. He expressed confidence that an improvement in living standards of miners would result in higher coal production.

Given that there is less and less coal, natural gas was supposed to become available in the entire FBiH already ten years ago, the official stressed. However, gas infrastructure wasn’t developed, he added. Lakić recently estimated that gas would become the key energy source.

He recalled that the Federation of BiH still depends on the gas pipeline from Serbia that enters BiH near Zvornik. It is necessary to build new interconnections to the south, north, and west, Lakić underlined.

Of note, the ministry said in December that it began developing the energy sector transition strategy.