Srbijagas and the Gas-Res companies signed an agreement in Banja Luka on Tuesday to build a gas interconnection between Serbia and Bosnia's Republika Srpska region.

The interconnection will link the gas pipeline system in Bosnia and Herzegovina to Serbia and the Balkan Stream pipeline.

The interconnection will go from Serbia into Bosnia and Herzegovina via cities of Bijeljina, Banja Luka, Prijedor and Novi Grad, the Serbian state-owned Srbijagas company said, adding that the new pipeline will be 90 kilometres long in Serbia and 320 kilometres in the Republika Srpska with a planned capacity of 1.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year.

The agreement was signed by Srbijagas CEO Dusan Bajatovic and Gas-Res CEO Djuro Glamocic with Republika Srpska Energy and Mining Minister Petar Djokic Present.

Bajatovic (Socialist Party of Serbia – SPS) and the management of Srbijagas have been fiercely criticized by Serbian Mining and Energy Minister Zorana Mihajlovic (Serbian Progressive Party – SNS) who was not present at the signing.