BUDAPEST – Hungarian oil and gas company MOL has received an official license from the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) allowing it to continue negotiations on the acquisition of the Russian majority stake in Serbia’s Oil Industry of Serbia (NIS) until 16 June, the company announced.
According to the statement, following the license extension granted on 22 May, negotiations have progressed significantly, and the additional extension will now enable the finalization of the of the transaction documentation.
The decision to extend the license came after MOL submitted a request to OFAC for additional time to complete the negotiations, as recently confirmed by Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Đedović Handanović.
Following talks with Gazprom Neft executives, she said that the deadline for finalizing the agreement had been set for 6 June and that the Hungarian company had requested and additional 30 days. Under the previously issued OFAC license, MOL had been authorized to negotiate the acquisition of NIS until 6 June.
On 3 June, MOL formally requested a further 30-day extension form OFAC to complete negotiations. NIS had earlier received a separate license from the US Treasury Department allowing the company to continue its operational activities, including oil refining, through 16 June.
That license permits the continuation of business operations, contracts and other agreements involving NIS and its operating subsidiaries, including refinery processing, crude oil imports, transactions necessary to ensure security of supply and technical maintenance, as well as financial settlements.
