The conference, which started on Wednesday, pooled about 200 participants who discussed possibilities for ensuring additional gas sources and the construction of more gas supply networks in the area so as to avoid crises and gas shortages like one that happened this winter.
The Secretary-General of the International Gas Union (IGU), Peter Storm, told the conference that if they wanted to meet requirements stemming from the Kyoto Protocol, Southeastern European countries would have to shift their attention to greater consumption of natural gas.
Also today, the head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Augen Yayikogly, announced a possibility of offering international financial support to a project connecting the Bosnian gas supply network with the network in Croatia.
Presenting the EBRD annual report on central and eastern European countries' progress in democracy and market economy in the northwestern city of Banja Luka, Yayikogly announced the signing of an agreement on the construction of a gas pipeline from the Croatian city of Slavonski Brod towards southern Bosnia-Herzegovina next winter.
The Croatian and Bosnian state-run gas companies signed a memorandum of understanding regarding this project in Sarajevo last year.
The EBRD has assessed that preparations for this project would need another six to nine months and that the first stage of the project would require between 60 and 80 million euros.
Bosnia-Herzegovina currently depends on gas imports from Russia, which piped via Serbia.
The new gas pipeline trunk will also make it possible for the Dubrovnik area of southern Croatia to receive gas from Croatia via Bosnia.