Djedovic Handanovic: Objective is for talks on NIS to be completed by end-week

BELGRADE - Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto, Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said on Thursday they had discussed talks between the Hungarian oil firm MOL and the Russian owners of the Serbian oil company NIS and that the objective was for the talks to be completed by the end of this week.

Djedovic Handanovic also said they had discussed other potential partners as well.

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

"We discussed the talks that are underway between the Russian owners of NIS and the Hungarian company MOL, as well as other potential partners, and the objective is for the talks to be finished by the end of this week and for a binding agreement to be signed on a transfer of ownership - an exit of Russian shareholders from the ownership and a purchase of their stake by new owners," Djedovic Handanovic said.

After that, a request will be sent to the US administration to extend a licence to NIS to "create the conditions for the talks to be continued and completed by March 24, the current deadline set by the US administration," she said.

"In the spirit of those talks and future steps, we also discussed a Serbia-Hungary inter-governmental agreement that would be signed on this matter, and we discussed some fundamental principles of that agreement, which is important for us as well as for Hungary and which will create the preconditions for us to, above all, continue the cooperation in the energy sector, to be partners in NIS in the future and to be able to count on support and cooperation," the minister said.

She also said the NIS refinery in Pancevo was expected to resume operations by end-week following deliveries of crude oil supplies this week.