Page 125 - bne IntelliNews Southeastern Europe Outlook 2025

older refineries located in Ballsh and Fier, as well as a newer refinery near Elbasan. Despite these facilities, Albania primarily exports its crude oil while relying on imports for refined fuel.
7.2 Energy & Power – Bosnia & Herzegovina
Bosnia’s electricity generation sector remains dominated by coal-fired power, but the country is putting significant effort into raising the share of green energy.
Despite that, progress has been slow and some projects are facing a risk of being cancelled or further delayed. In December, local media reported that Chinese company AVIC is considering exiting the project for construction of the Bistrica HPP in Bosnia & Herzegovina due to stalled payments. If completed, the plant will consist of three hydropower units on the river Bistrica with a total installed capacity of 45 MW.
In December 2019, Republika Srpska signed a €100mn deal with AVIC for the construction of the Bistrica HPP, which had to be financed with a loan by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). Although the entity has secured an agreement for another loan, by China’s Exim Bank, payments to AVIC had been delayed. The company gave the entity’s government deadline until December 6 to repay all obligations but it has expired without any debt repayment.
At the same time, the Federation’s government announced plans to shut down the operator of the Zenica coal mine, RMU Zenica, due to substantial financial losses. The mine has been incurring annual losses of nearly BAM20mn (€10.2mn), which have added to the accumulated deficits of its parent company, state-owned power utility Elektroprivreda BiH, according to Federation Minister of Energy, Mining and Industry Vedran Lakic.
The decision to close the mine was reached in agreement with the federal union and the mine’s management, Lakic said. He also noted that Bosnia was forced to import electricity in 2023 due to insufficient coal production.
Bosnia is also stalling over a project for a gas interconnector that would secure its independence from Russia. In December, the US urged the country to progress plans to build a southern gas interconnector that would secure the country’s energy independence. However, Russia was not enthusiastic about US support for the project and called this “neocolonialism”.
In 2025, the Federation plans to build 46 km of transmission line for the Siroka Draga wind park. In January 2023, Bosnia-based firm Imres doo Livno was granted an energy permit for the 125.4-MW Siroka Draga wind power project.
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