MOL in talks to buy stake in Serbia's NIS

Hungarian oil company MOL is in negotiations to buy a stake in its Serbian peer NIS, which is under U.S. sanctions, Gergely Gulyas, chief of staff for Viktor Orban, said last week.

The Hungarian cabinet would be willing to support a potential deal, Gulyas said at a press conference in Budapest.

Orban, who was on a visit to Serbia, told reporters at a joint press conference with president Aleksandar Vucic on Thursday that Hungary will help Serbia with energy-related issues, which he will further discuss with Vucic later in the day.

NIS, Serbia's sole oil refiner, is 44.85% owned by Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of Russian energy major Gazprom. Serbia's government owns 29.87%, and St. Petersburg-based Intelligence, a company indirectly controlled by Gazprom, has 11.3%. The remainder belongs to a number of minority shareholders.

In January, the U.S. Treasury announced sanctions on NIS over its Russian ownership. After several postponements, the restrictions took effect on October 8, with the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) demanding a complete exit of Russian owners from NIS.

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