The United States has given sanctioned Serbian oil company NIS a two-week extension to sell its Russian-owned majority stake as a condition for lifting restrictions, Serbia’s energy minister said on Friday.
Negotiations over a stake sale to Hungarian energy giant MOL have dragged on for months, with Serbia’s Petroleum Industries not reaching an agreement before a May 22 deadline set by Washington.
Serbian officials have said in recent days that talks are not going well, centered on whether MOL will also take over the Pancevo refinery near Belgrade, a key demand by Serbia, which is a minority shareholder in the country’s only oil company.
“The situation is complex, but our goal and task is to find long-term solutions and protect the interests of the Serbian state,” Serbian Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic wrote on Instagram.
MOL remains the only public bidder and the new sale deadline is June 6.
Serbian authorities and NIS’s largest shareholder Gazprom Neft have dismissed claims by a little-known Serbian businessman that it is considering a €2 billion takeover of the company.
Serbian officials also said they did not expect the deal to be affected by the recent change of government in Hungary and the departure of Viktor Orban, a close ally of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
NIS halted production at its main Pancevo refinery in December after long-delayed sanctions cut off crude supplies.
Production has restarted under a temporary operating license valid until mid-June, but the disruption has rattled Serbia. Serbia is a close ally of the Kremlin and one of the few European countries not to sanction Russia over Ukraine.
NIS supplies 80% of Serbia’s fuel market and operates approximately 330 filling stations, approximately one-fifth of the country’s total.
In 2008, Serbia sold a majority stake in the company to Gazprom for €400 million.
Gazprom Neft, which is subject to U.S. sanctions, currently owns 45% of NIS, and Gazprom transferred 11.3% of its shares to its affiliate Intelligence in September.
The Serbian government owns nearly 30% of the shares, with the remainder held by minority shareholders.
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This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.
