Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday that the identity of the buyer of Russia’s stake in the oil company NIS will be revealed in the coming days, Tanjug reports.
The oil company NIS is targeted by 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 must sell their stakes.
Asked by journalists in Abu Dhabi whether Hungary and the Hungarian oil company MOL or the United Arab Emirates are closest to taking over Russia’s stake in NIS, Vucic replied: “Maybe both, we’ll see.”
“I think we’ll know in two or three days,” the Serbian president added, according to Agerpres.
Vucic, who met with MOL executives in Belgrade on Monday to discuss NIS, told reporters that he would meet with UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Wednesday and that the bilateral meeting would be extremely important for Serbia, including for the situation at NIS.
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’s shares, while the rest belongs to small shareholders and employees of the company.
