Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced on Monday that Hungarian company MOL will pay between 900 million euro and one billion euro to acquire a 56% stake in Serbian oil company NIS, Tanjug reports, according to Agerpres.

In an interview with Blic TV, Vucic said that information according to which MOL bought the stake in the company for 1.7-2.5 billion euros is absurd.

“The 56% stake is valued at between 900 million euros and one billion euros. We have prepared the money, we have prepared two billion euros to pay for it, or we are even paying more than that,” Vucic said.

He stressed that Serbia has good relations with Russia, but added that he did not want to explain why the Russian side did not want to let Serbia pay the amount it had prepared and acquire Russian in NIS.

“It is easy for me to explain but I do not have to explain to you because I would endanger Serbia’s interests. For me, those reasons are clear, unambiguous and understandable. Whether they are acceptable or not is another matter. But somehow we cannot call them friendly,” the Serbian president said.

This month, the Hungarian company MOL and the Russian group Gazprom agreed on the basic provisions of the future agreement on the acquisition by MOL of the Russian stake in the Serbian oil company NIS.

The agreement, which also provides for a 5% increase in Serbia’s stake in NIS, will be submitted for approval to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Treasury Department, Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic announced.

“What is important in these negotiations is that Serbia has managed to improve its position compared to 2008, when we were left with a stake of less than 30%, and in the future we will increase our stake in NIS by 5%, which will allow us greater decision-making rights and protect the interests of our citizens,” the official said.

According to the agreement, MOL will acquire Gazprom’s 56.15% stake in NIS.

The NIS oil company is subject to US sanctions because of its Russian shareholders. Two Russian companies, Gazprom Neft and Gazprom, own 44.9% and 11.3% of NIS shares respectively, but they must sell their stakes.

NIS owns Serbia’s only refinery, located in Pancevo, near the capital Belgrade, as well as a chain of more than 400 gas stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Romania. The Serbian state, whose government has not imposed sanctions on Russia, owns 29.9% of NIS shares.