2025-11-27 16:58
publication
2025-11-27 16:58
The Hungarian energy company MOL could buy shares in the Serbian Oil Industry (NIS), and talks on this subject are ongoing, Gergely Gulyas, head of the Hungarian Prime Minister's office, said on Thursday. NIS is subject to US sanctions because Russian entities hold a majority of its shares.
“It is possible to conduct a normal market transaction, talks are underway. I will repeat that it is in NIS's interest that the company ceases to be Russian owned,” Gulyas said.
“One option is for MOL to take over a greater role,” he added.
The statement was made on the day of the meeting between Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Subotica in northern Serbia. A day earlier, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijarto announced in Belgrade Hungary's support for Serbia in the form of increasing exports of crude oil and petroleum products to Serbia.
On the eve of his visit to its southern neighbor, Orban wrote in a Facebook post that “Hungary will do everything to help Serbia with fuel supplies,” but did not provide details. On Thursday in Subotica, he confirmed Budapest's interest in taking over “a certain role” in NIS, noting that Serbia will decide about the future of the company affected by US sanctions. On Tuesday, the possibility of Croatian entities purchasing shares in the company was ruled out by the country's president, Zoran Milanović.
The Hungarian prime minister added that on Friday he would hold talks on supplying his country with energy raw materials, which – according to him – would also allow them to be supplied to Serbia, Reuters reported. The Prime Minister did not explain where and with whom he wanted to talk about this topic, but according to Hungarian media reports, on Friday he will go to Moscow, where he will meet the leader of Russia, Vladimir Putin.
President Vucic earlier warned that the country's only refinery – the NIS refinery in Pančevo – would have to be closed later this week if US sanctions were not stopped. The Serbian leader noted on Tuesday that Belgrade will give the Russian owners of NIS 50 days to sell their shares, and if this does not happen, the Serbian government will take over the company and offer to buy back the Russian shares.
In January, the United States included NIS on the list of companies subject to sanctions in order, as it was announced, to prevent the financing of the war in Ukraine with money from Russian energy companies. The restrictions entered into force, after being postponed several times, in early October. Banks then stopped processing NIS payments, and Croatia's JANAF pipeline stopped deliveries of crude oil to the Pančevo refinery.
Washington aims to completely eliminate Russian capital from NIS and on November 15 gave the company until February 13 to find a buyer for the Russian shares.
Since 2008, the majority shareholders in NIS are Gazprom and Gazprom Neft, the oil company of Gazprom, which owns approximately 96 percent. its shares. At that time, Gazprom Neft owned 50 percent. shares in NIS, the Serbian state – 29.87 percent, and Gazprom – 6.15 percent. The remaining shares belonged to citizens, current and former employees and other minority shareholders.
Although the ownership structure of NIS has changed several times recently, the concern is still mostly in the hands of Russian companies. Gazprom withdrew from NIS in September, and its shares were taken over by another company managed by it: Intelligence from St. Petersburg – according to data from the Belgrade Stock Exchange.
Jakub Bawołek from Budapest (PAP)
jbw/ zm/ osz/
