On Monday, Serbia’s Energy Minister, Dubravka Đedović Handanović, announced that Russia’s Gazprom Neft has reached a provisional agreement to sell its majority stake in the Serbian oil refiner Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) to the Hungarian energy company MOL, reported Reuters.
The Russian ownership stake of 56.15 per cent has been sold to MOL, whilst a portion of the ownership will also pass to the United Arab Emirates, according to Srbija Danas, citing Biznis Kurir. Additionally, the state of Serbia will increase its own share. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced that Serbia is interested in increasing its stake in the ownership structure.
The parties aim to sign the sale and purchase agreement by 31 March 2026. According to the letter of intent, the transaction would cover not only the Pančevo oil refinery but also NIS’s retail network and its hydrocarbon exploration and production portfolio. The Completion of the transaction requires, among others, approvals from OFAC (the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control) as well as other Serbian governmental and state authorities.
The MOL Group is in talks with the national oil company of the United Arab Emirates, ADNOC, for it to join the ownership structure of NIS as a minority shareholder, while MOL would retain its majority stake and control. In addition to the refinery’s technological level and product mix, NIS’s wholesale, logistics and retail networks also fit with the MOL Group’s regional portfolio.
NIS operates nearly 400 filling stations in Serbia, Romania and Bosnia and Herzegovina. It also has a significant asset portfolio in hydrocarbon exploration and production: it holds around 173 million barrels of oil equivalent in 2P (recoverable) reserves, daily oil and gas production in Serbia exceeds 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent, and the company also holds exploration licences in Romania and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Full story Mol will buy NIS from Russian owners
Share this:
