Belgrade Mulls Nationalizing Serbian Oil Industry - Presiden
Belgrade Mulls Nationalizing Serbian Oil Industry - President
MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 06th November, 2022) Serbia is considering the acquisition of a controlling stake in the Serbian multinational oil and gas company Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS), which is owned by Russian companies, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Sunday.
NIS, 56.15% shares of which are owned by Russia's Gazprom group, was hit by sanctions when the European Union decided to ban Russian oil supplies via the Adriatic oil pipeline in Croatia from December. Russian Ambassador to Serbia Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko said in an interview with Sputnik that the Serbian oil industry would continue to work with Russian companies and that the issue of redistributing shares was "removed from the agenda."
However, Vucic told the Financial Times that Serbia would consider "all the possibilities," including taking over NIS.
"If there were other sanctions against Russian-owned enterprises, it will be a huge problem for us. We will have to act anyway... we have to secure enough oil and gas to our people. If nobody wants to work with NIS... then we will act," Vucic told the newspaper, adding that so far, such actions were not required.
According to three sources, several entities, including the Serbian government and Hungarian energy company MOL, considered acquiring a controlling stake from Gazpromneft, but talks over the sale stalled, the newspaper said.
In addition, Serbia intends to acquire a 10-15% stake in the Hungarian Paks nuclear power plant, but Vucic noted that a final decision on this issue has not yet been made, the report added.