Following the announcement from Makpetrol that the company will stop importing natural gas in 2023 – unless the Government immediately adopts regulatory changes, Economy Minister Kreshnik Bekteshi warned the importer that they won’t be left in a monopoly position for ever.

Makpetrol has held monopoly over gas imports for 21 years but that time is over. We are for market liberalization. With the help of our strategic partners in the European Union we were able to free import capacity on the pipeline to Bulgaria that was fully bought up by Gazprom and now we can have competitors, Bekteshi said.

Bekteshi says that ELEM/ESM, the state owned energy company that took over the central heating system in Skopje, already has offers from other natural gas suppliers for 2023. He added that he is in talks with Prime Minister Kovacevski to have a new law adopted that wouldl regulate the actions of strategically important companies at time of crises.