Serbia will submit its final proposal to Mol on Friday regarding the Hungarian company’s bid to take over NIS, the operator of the Balkan state’s only refinery, the energy minister said, Reuters reported.
In January, Russian companies Gazprom Neft and Gazprom agreed to sell their 56% stake in NIS to Mol after the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) demanded the sale of Russian assets following sanctions imposed on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine, according to Agerpres.
“We had intensive talks with Mol representatives on Wednesday and Thursday. We agreed on certain issues. There are still a few issues to be analyzed, and the most important for us is the future operation of the refinery,” Serbian Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic told Serbia’s Tanjug news agency.
The official added that the government’s final position on NIS and MOL will be presented by the end of the day, and Mol’s Board of Directors will make a decision on Monday.
Washington has given the Russian companies and Mol until May 22 to complete the sale, which must be approved by the Serbian state, which owns 29.9% of NIS.
The talks between Mol and the Belgrade government, which wants to increase its stake in NIS by 5%, are separate from those between the Hungarian company and Gazprom and Gazprom Neft.
In addition to the approval of the Serbian government, the transaction requires OFAC approval, a Mol spokesman said. The company will thus strengthen its presence in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).
The US decision comes at a time when the oil market is affected by the war in Iran. Although Serbia is not directly affected by the crisis, with over 60% of its oil imports coming from Kazakhstan, it relies on the NIS refinery for 95% of its domestic fuel supply. Crude oil is delivered via the Croatian JANAF pipeline, which requires an OFAC license to supply NIS.
NIS owns Serbia’s only refinery, located in Pancevo, near the capital Belgrade, as well as a chain of over 400 gas stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Romania.