BELGRADE – Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić states that at yesterday’s session, the Serbian government unanimously adopted his proposal to give the Russian partners a 50-day deadline to find a new owner of the Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS). According to him, if it does not happen, Serbia will install its management in NIS and offer the Russians “the highest possible price” for the company.
At today’s press conference, Vučić announced that the NIS Pančevo refinery is now operating at decreased capacity and that it has four days until the total shutdown.
He added that Serbia still hoped to get an operating licence for NIS from the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) in the coming days, pending the resolution of ownership issue.
Vučić said that, at yesterday’s session of the Government, several Serbian ministers proposed that Serbia “should immediately nationalise NIS”, but that his proposal was different, and, finally, the Government adopted it unanimously, N1 reports.
“We are prepared to suffer all the consequences for the next 50 days. We are prepared to suffer if the refinery does not work for us, if nothing works for us, because we will manage and we will ensure a sufficient supply to the market. But after 50 days, if there is no creation of a sales contract, we have no choice, and even then we will not nationalise, but we will introduce our administration and then we will offer the highest possible price and pay the highest possible price to Russian friends”, Vučić clarified.
He reiterated that “we are neither communists nor fascists”, and that he thinks that “three months is more than enough to end negotiations on the change of ownership in NIS, because we “cannot survive anymore”.
Vučić stressed that he conveyed this position in a letter he sent to the OFAC, expressing hope that the Americans would extend the operating license to NIS.
“I am asking them to give us (the license), especially because of the guarantees I gave. I know that they know that my word has a greater meaning than someone’s 1,000 signatures,” Vučić said.
He added that Serbia must give a certain period of time to “our friends from the Emirates, Hungary and other countries, who are discussing NIS with the Russians”.
“We are not the owners of NIS. I say to the Americans: ‘people, what do you want us to do, we are not the owners”. … how are we going to we sell it in February, and we are not the owners, and the other party wants to stay and prolong the sanctions… we could not do anything about it”, Vučić remarked.
