Hungary takes helm of Serbia’s oil industry in billion-euro deal

Hungarian oil and gas company MOL has agreed to acquire a majority stake in Serbia’s oil firm Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) from its Russian owners for up to €1 billion ($1.19 billion), Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced.

MOL confirmed on January 19 that it had signed a binding agreement to purchase a 56.16 percent stake in NIS currently held by Gazprom Neft and Gazprom. At the time, the Hungarian company did not disclose the financial terms of the transaction, Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media.

“As far as I understood, it (the price) was between 900 million and a billion euros for the 56 percent stake,” Vučić said during a live broadcast on Belgrade-based TV.

The deal remains subject to approval by the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control. The Russian shareholders face a March 24 deadline to divest their ownership after the United States placed NIS under sanctions in October as part of measures targeting Russia’s energy sector over Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

Vučić also revealed that Serbia itself had been prepared to pay Gazprom and Gazprom Neft twice the agreed price, but declined to explain why such a transaction did not materialize, saying that doing so could “jeopardize Serbian interests.”

By Vafa Guliyeva