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Representatives of Hungarian MOL visit NIS refinery

2026-01-05 15:12:46, Kosova & Bota CNA

Representatives of the Hungarian MOL Group began a visit to the Pancevo refinery and other key facilities of the Serbian Oil Industry (NIS) on January 5, Radio Free Europe (REL) learned.

Their visit to the Pancevo refinery is the first since the announcement a few months ago that NIS was for sale.

As previously announced by the political leadership in Belgrade, MOL is interested in purchasing the Russian share of shares in NIS, a company that has been under US sanctions since the beginning of October last year.

MOL representatives have been visiting NIS gas stations throughout Serbia since Monday morning, while the Hungarian delegation at the Pancevo refinery is holding meetings with the managers of this oil complex and with NIS representatives.

The visit of the Hungarian experts was announced about ten days ago, in the context of MOL's interest in conducting a detailed analysis of NIS' business, system and facilities before a possible purchase decision. This verification process includes the legal, financial and technical aspects of the activity.

Professional meetings are being held between the two parties at the Pan?evo refinery, during which potential buyers are presented with information about the plant's equipment and production operations.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vu?i? said on January 2 that he expects the main points of the contract between NIS and the Hungarian company MOL to be finalized by January 23.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) at the US Treasury Department on October 9 began implementing sanctions against NIS due to its ownership stake in the Russian state-owned company Gazprom Neft, with the aim, as Washington announced, of preventing Russia from using energy revenues for the war in Ukraine.

The United States' condition for the NIS to be removed from the US sanctions list is that Russian companies divest themselves of ownership.

NIS is owned by Russia: state-owned company Gazprom, its subsidiary Gazprom Neft and the St. Petersburg-based Intelligence joint-stock company own 56.15 percent of the shares, Serbia 29.87 percent, while just under 14 percent is in the hands of smaller shareholders.

Due to the embargo and the inability to import crude oil, the Pan?evo refinery – the only one in Serbia – which is the most important facility owned by NIS, was closed on December 2.

NIS announced on January 1 that the US Treasury Department had issued that company a special license, allowing it to once again carry out operational activities until January 23.

The Serbian Oil Industry was sold to Gazprom in January 2008, within the framework of the Russian-Serbian interstate agreement on cooperation in the field of oil and gas, for 400 million euros.

So far there has been no official information on the current value of the sale of Russian NIS shares./ REL