Bajatovic: I do not expect a negative OFAC response to NIS deal

BELGRADE - Srbijagas CEO Dusan Bajatovic said on Tuesday there were ways for the Hungarian oil company MOL to pay Russia's Gazprom neft for an acquisition of its stake in the Serbian oil firm NIS, and noted that he did not expect a negative response to the deal by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

NIS is under US sanctions due to its Russian majority ownership.

Asked how MOL would pay for the transaction, Bajatovic told K1 TV there were ways for the Russian side to receive the funds and that even the OFAC could agree to a direct payment to Gazprom neft.

"There are ways to pay for that, including through the Arab world, but you would do it through a payment agent, and that costs between five and seven per cent. We do not have that expense. And the OFAC might agree to a direct payment being made to the Russians, because I do not believe the Russians will accept that it should sit in some account until the end of the war since it would then become a part of the 350 bln dollars that has been frozen," he said.

These are all interesting questions, as is the oil pipeline we will be building together with the Hungarians, Bajatovic said.

"Therefore, we are not only resolving the issue of NIS operations. We are solving very big issues," Bajatovic added.

He also said he did not expect a negative OFAC response to the deal agreed on NIS.

"Judging by the new (licence) extension, I think the answer will not be a negative one, but the OFAC is slow in terms of responding and does so at the last minute. They have already extended the deadline for a sale from February until March 24, which is all good news," he said.

"The first signs - after the fundamental parameters of the shareholder agreement were sent - were positive in the sense that the time frame has been extended and that we have received an operating licence," Bajatovic said, noting that "everything is possible" as the sanctions were political in nature.