Serbia: Negotiations between Russia and Hungarian MOL for NIS have begun

2025-12-25 17:55:45, Kosova & Bota CNA

Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy, Dubravka Gjedovic Handanovic, said on December 25 that negotiations are underway between Russian shareholders in the Oil Industry of Serbia (NIS) and Hungary's MOL for the sale of shares in the company.

She said that NIS and MOL have informed the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control about these developments.

"The Hungarian government has supported the talks and we, as the Government of Serbia, will provide support in order to find a solution for lifting sanctions and creating conditions to guarantee NIS an operational license," the Serbian minister's office said.

According to her, the Russian Government has informed the Serbian Government that it supports negotiations for the withdrawal of Russian capital from NIS, therefore Serbia will support these developments.

The minister is quoted as saying that there is no logistical capacity to import the necessary amount of petroleum products, so talks will continue for NIS to resume operations, regardless of the time it takes for MOL and Russian shareholders to agree on the deal.

US authorities issued a license to NIS a day ago, extending the deadline for negotiations for the sale of the company's Russian shares until March 24, 2026.

As the Serbian Radio and Television announced on December 24, the decision of the American authorities did not authorize the NIS to work during the negotiations.

The Serbian oil industry is owned by Russia, namely the subsidiary of the Russian state-owned Gazprom, Gazprom Neft. It owns 56.16 percent of the shares, Serbia 29.87 percent, while other shareholders have smaller shares.

The United States sanctioned NIS on October 9th with the aim of preventing Russia from using energy revenues to finance the war in Ukraine.

The US administration's condition for removing the NIS from the sanctions regime is that it be freed from Russian ownership. Washington has repeatedly extended the deadline for implementing the sanctions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on December 19 that Gazprom Neft has invested more than $3 billion in NIS and that dialogue with Serbia is underway, with the aim of resolving the problem./REL