Serbia is dissatisfied with a revised proposal from MOL regarding the future operation of the country's sole refinery, as the Hungarian oil company seeks to acquire the Russian-held majority stake in U.S.-sanctioned NIS, which owns and operates the facility, energy minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said on Wednesday.
The main stumbling block is the extent to which the Serbian fuel market would be covered by the output of the 4.8 mt/y refinery located in the northern city of Pancevo, Djedovic Handanovic said in a video posted on social media, without disclosing further details.
"We will not jeopardise the security of supply, nor the influence of the refinery's operations on the economy and businesses. Negotiations continue today and tomorrow. We want to reach a compromise, but not at any cost," Djedovic Handanovic said.
Last week, Djedovic Handanovic said that key disagreements with MOL relate to the refinery's future crude oil processing capacity and mechanisms to ensure that agreed production levels will be maintained, as well as certain obligations undertaken by NIS in the past that are important for Serbia.
Serbia holds a 29.87% stake in NIS. The government in Belgrade is negotiating with MOL, which wants to buy the combined 56.15% stake in NIS held by Gazprom Neft and Gazprom, on an agreement that would define relations between Serbia, as a minority shareholder, and MOL, as the prospective majority owner of NIS.
Djedovic Handanovic said on Wednesday that MOL continues to negotiate with Gazprom Neft on the acquisition of the majority stake in NIS.
MOL signed a binding heads of agreement with Gazprom Neft to buy the 56.15% stake in NIS in January, a year after the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions on the Serbian refiner over its Russian ownership. MOL has been given until May 22 to conclude the talks.
Serbia's president Vucic said in January that the Russian ownership in NIS that MOL intends to buy was priced at between 900 million euro ($1.05 billion) and 1 billion euro.
Apart from Serbia, NIS is active in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, and Romania. It owns 388 active retail sites, with 331 of the total located in Serbia, and employs more than 13,500 people. The U.S. Treasury in April issued a fresh, two-month sanctions waiver to NIS, allowing the company to continue operating through June 16.
(SeeNews, May 13, 2026)
