BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 5. North Macedonia and Serbia have officially joined the Vertical Gas Corridor, expanding its infrastructure network toward the Western Balkans and creating additional opportunities to diversify gas supplies in the region.
According to North Macedonia’s Ministry of Energy, Mining and Mineral Resources, a memorandum of understanding was signed by the region’s gas transmission system operators in Thessaloniki on the sidelines of the Southeast Europe Energy Forum. Greek gas transmission operator DESFA and other participants in the corridor formally welcomed the accession of North Macedonia’s NOMAGAS and Serbia’s Transportgas Serbia.
For North Macedonia, joining the Vertical Gas Corridor is particularly significant as it will enable the country to integrate into regional gas infrastructure and gain access to supply routes from the south through Greece’s gas network.
North Macedonia’s Energy, Mining and Mineral Resources Minister Sanja Bozhinovska said a key element of the strategy was the gas interconnector under construction with Greece.
“By connecting to the Greek gas system, Macedonia will gain access to the Southern Gas Corridor and supply opportunities through the LNG terminals in Revithoussa and Alexandroupolis, opening access to a wider range of alternative natural gas sources,” she said.
North Macedonia’s accession to the Vertical Gas Corridor comes as a new energy route is being developed to connect southern Europe with Central and Eastern Europe while expanding gas supply options for Western Balkan countries.
Access to the Southern Gas Corridor
The prospect of connecting to the Southern Gas Corridor is also of particular interest in terms of North Macedonia’s cooperation with Azerbaijan.
As part of its long-term strategy, North Macedonia plans to secure natural gas supplies from Azerbaijan and incorporate them into its national energy plans.
Goran Nikolovski, head of the gas sector at North Macedonia’s Ministry of Energy, Mining and Mineral Resources, told Trend in March this year that Azerbaijani gas supplies would enable the country to meet both baseload and peak demand while providing flexibility for renewable power generation.
“Our country has around 2 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity. We aim to balance electricity generation through gas supplies from Azerbaijan. This balance is particularly important at night and during periods of low generation,” he said.
Nikolovski said the two countries had already made progress in energy cooperation. Working groups have been established with relevant Azerbaijani authorities, and once gas projects in North Macedonia are completed, the sides plan to sign a new memorandum that would serve as a basis for a broader cooperation agreement.
Meanwhile, since Dec. 1, 2025, Azerbaijani natural gas has been supplied to private and industrial consumers in North Macedonia an informed source told Trend earlier. The supplies were launched through cooperation between Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR, M-Gaz and CNG Systems. The initiative represents a pilot expansion of the virtual gasification project that has been operating in Bulgaria since 2024.
How North Macedonia is connecting to the regional gas network
Joining the Vertical Gas Corridor does not involve the construction of a single new pipeline. Instead, it entails integrating national gas transmission systems, interconnectors and LNG terminals, allowing gas to flow along multiple routes from southern to central and northern Europe.
One of the key projects for North Macedonia is the gas interconnector with Greece. Construction is already under way, with commissioning expected in 2027.
According to North Macedonia’s energy minister, 68 km of the pipeline remains to be completed. The country is also developing a connection with Serbia, with the relevant contract already signed. The Serbian interconnector will be 23 km long.
A gas route linking Greece, North Macedonia and Serbia is expected to be established by 2028.
The Greece-North Macedonia interconnector will provide access to Greece’s gas transmission system and the LNG terminals at Revithoussa and Alexandroupolis. According to the ministry, the interconnector will initially have an annual capacity of 1 billion cubic metres.
The connection with Serbia, meanwhile, will provide access to northern routes and gas transmission systems in Central and Eastern Europe. Its designed capacity will be 1.5 billion cubic metres per year.
A New Route for the Western Balkans
With the accession of North Macedonia and Serbia, the Vertical Gas Corridor is no longer solely a route linking Greece with Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Slovakia and Hungary.
Its expansion into the Western Balkans creates an additional axis through which gas, including LNG arriving via Greek terminals, can be transported to North Macedonia and onward to Serbia.
For North Macedonia, this could gradually shift the country from the role of an end consumer to that of a potential transit link between southern and Central Europe.
For Azerbaijan, the expansion of this infrastructure also offers an additional opportunity. As interconnectors are developed and North Macedonia becomes further integrated into the regional gas network, conditions are being created to expand access for Azerbaijani gas to Western Balkan markets through infrastructure linked to the Southern Gas Corridor.
According to Azerbaijan’s Energy Ministry, the number of countries importing Azerbaijani natural gas has reached 16, placing the country among the global leaders in terms of the geographical reach of pipeline gas exports.
Last year, Azerbaijan accounted for 8.1% of the European Union’s pipeline gas imports. Last year and in the first four months of this year, Azerbaijan exported 16.7 billion cubic metres of gas to Europe, 12.8 billion cubic metres to Türkiye, 3.3 billion cubic metres to Georgia and 800 million cubic metres to Syria.
