NIS at a Crossroads: MOL Board Decides on Monday
One day before the OFAC deadline of June 6, MOL is awaiting Serbia's final stance, while its board decides on Monday whether to buy the Russian stake in NIS.
- The OFAC deadline to conclude talks on buying the Russian stake in NIS expires on June 6.
- MOL has formally requested an additional 30 days and is awaiting Serbia's final position.
- MOL's board of directors decides on the deal on Monday.
- NIS's operating licence expires on June 16, and the company will seek a new extension.
The deadline that will determine the fate of Serbia’s largest energy deal is one day away: the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) set June 6 as the cut-off for concluding talks on the purchase of the Russian stake in NIS. With one day left, Hungary’s MOL still has no signed agreement and is waiting for the Serbian government’s final stance and a decision from its own board.
MOL has formally requested a 30-day extension, confirmed Serbia’s Minister of Mining and Energy, Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic. In her words, the willingness to reach a solution exists on the Hungarian side as well, and the calendar is tightening further because NIS’s operating licence, which allows the company to function despite sanctions, expires on June 16. That is just ten days after the negotiating deadline runs out.
Will MOL Get the Extra 30 Days It Asked For?
The crux of the move is that MOL is not entering Monday with a closed deal, but with a request to Washington to extend the window for talks. The minister described the situation in plain terms: the deadline is here, and both sides are seeking more time.
“We know the deadline expires on June 6, they asked for an additional 30 days,” Djedovic Handanovic said.
On January 19, the Hungarian oil group signed a binding framework agreement with Gazprom Neft to buy a 56.15 percent stake in NIS. That step is the political and legal framework for a solution, but closing the deal depends on three levers that must align in the same week:
- The OFAC deadline to conclude talks, expiring June 6.
- The decision by MOL’s board of directors on the deal itself, scheduled for Monday.
- NIS’s operating licence, which expires on June 16 and for which the company will seek a new extension.
The minister added that the signal of readiness also comes from the highest level of the Hungarian company. “The head of MOL, Mr Zsolt Hernadi, confirmed it to me as well, so there is certainly a willingness on their side to find a solution,” Djedovic Handanovic said.
What Monday Means for NIS and the Pancevo Refinery
The decision by MOL’s board on Monday is the first item in a sequence. If the board gives the green light, the deal still hinges on the request to extend the OFAC deadline, because without US approval a transaction with a sanctioned company cannot close. If the extension fails to come, the full sanctions regime takes effect.
This deadline is the latest turn in a story that has been escalating for weeks. After the earlier halt of crude oil deliveries via Croatia’s JANAF, the Pancevo refinery is already running at reduced capacity, and every day without a resolution of the ownership question raises the cost of keeping the plant on standby and the risk to fuel supply on the domestic market.
The arithmetic is twofold. The June 6 negotiating deadline and the operating licence that expires on June 16 do not line up, so even a 30-day extension for talks does not automatically resolve the permit to operate. NIS has already announced it will seek a new extension of the operating licence, meaning the Serbian government and MOL enter Monday with two separate but linked calendar battles.
Will Washington approve an additional 30 days and push back the deadline, or will Monday bring the closing of the window for an agreement on NIS?
