The head of a Serbian gas industry expert organization said on Friday that the natural gas supplies being negotiated with Russia’s Gazprom might lead to higher prices.

“The price of gas which Serbia is negotiating with Gazprom will be higher because the formula used to date was always linked to oil prices. And this time around the new formula will probably be changed to include the market price (of gas), which in turn depends on the deal made between Serbia’s Srbijagas and Gazprom,” Gas Association of Serbia senior official, Vojislav Vuletic, told state television RTS.

He said that the formula used until now meant that when oil had a price of $55 per barrel the price of gas would total $270. However, he warned, oil prices are currently very high, at more than $100 per barrel.

“So the price will be almost double from what it is now,” Vuletic said. He added that politics were involved in the energy industry, with “gas prices needlessly rising.”