Sale of Individual Assets Aims to Optimize Filling Station Network in Bosnia - NIS

Serbian oil and gas companyNIS [BEL:NIIS] said it has no plans to shrink its presence on the Bosnian market after its unit Gazprom Petrol, G-Petrol, announced the sale of three filling stations located in the Tuzla canton.The sale is a move towards the optimisation of the G-Petrol network of filling stations and part of the company’s strategy for expansion on the Bosnian market, a NIS spokesperson told SeeNews by email on Tuesday.

Local media had earlier reported that NIS is selling filling stations in Bosnia located in Gracanica, Spionica and Tinja. Bidders have been invited to submit offers for each individual station or all three combined by September 15.

NIS has said it plans to operate a network of 250 units under the Gazprom brand in Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and Bosnia by the end of 2015. The Serbian company started developing a regional network under the premium brand in 2012. It also runs filling stations in the region under a budget brand, NIS Petrol.

At the end of March, NIS operated 35 filling stations in Bulgaria and Bosnia and Herzegovina each, as well as 18 fuel stations in Romania with the company's retail fuel market share in those three countries standing at 4.2%, 9.6% and 0.7%, respectively.

NIS, 56.15%-owned by Russia's Gazprom Neft, is one of the largest vertically integrated oil and gas companies in Southeast Europe. Main activities include the exploration, production and processing of oil and gas, as well as the production and trade with a wide range of petroleum products.

Source: SeeNews