BELGRADE – Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Đedović Handanović stated last night that Serbia had successfully closed all open issues with the Hungarian company MOL and reached a compromise when it comes to the Shareholder Agreement between Serbia and MOL.
Đedović Handanović stated on her Instagram account that, among other things, it was agreed that if Gazprom Neft makes an agreement with MOL on the sale of a 56.15 percent stake in the Oil Industry of Serbia (NIS), and the American OFAC approves that transaction, the state of Serbia will buy an additional five percent of shares in NIS, which will give it additional rights when it comes to making or blocking important decisions for our country.
Regarding the operation of the Pančevo refinery, the Hungarian side had committed that it will continue to operate as before, with at least the same average annual capacity as in the last four years before the introduction of US sanctions, when NIS performed well, Đedović Handanović said.
She clarified that such activities of the refinery are necessary to meet the demands of the Serbian market of petroleum products, adding that this topic was one of the key issues for the Serbian side.
According to her, the Serbian members of the NIS Board of Directors will generally have more powers than before in making, but also blocking any unfavorable decisions for Serbia.
“We continue to work, committed to finding a long-term solution for NIS, and neither the state of Serbia, its government, nor its citizens are to blame for the imposition of US sanctions”, Đedović Handanović noted.
On 8 June, MOL stated that it had 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 NIS until 16 June.
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.
