site.btaSerbian President Discusses NIS Oil Company Situation with Russian Ambassador to Belgrade

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic held talks on Wednesday with Russian Ambassador to Belgrade Aleksandr Botsan-Kharchenko on “possible solutions regarding Serbia’s oil company NIS” and energy issues. Vucic announced this on his Instagram profile after the meeting, without specifying what solutions had been discussed.

“We will continue to work to ensure stable energy supplies and sustainable arrangements that protect the interests of Serbia and our citizens, through dialogue and respect for existing agreements and the complex international circumstances,” he wrote.

The Serbian President said he also discussed current international developments and “issues important to relations between Serbia and Russia” with the Russian Ambassador.

Even after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the imposition of Western sanctions, Belgrade has remained one of the Kremlin’s few European partners, despite Serbia being a candidate for membership in the European Union, the Serbian service of Radio Free Europe (RFE) recalled.

Despite EU calls, Serbia has refused to impose sanctions on Russia, citing the “protection of national interests”, primarily its energy dependence on Russia, but also Russia’s support for Serbia’s refusal to recognize Kosovo’s independence, RFE added.

Vucic’s talks with Botsan-Kharchenko took place against the backdrop of an agreement reached between Hungarian oil company MOL and Gazpromneft for the sale of the entire majority stake in Serbia’s oil company NIS, amounting to 56.15%.

Mining and Energy Minister Dubravka Dedovic Handanovic said on Wednesday that once MOL takes over the majority stake, Serbia is expected to receive an additional 5% from the Hungarian company, while Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), a state-owned corporation of the United Arab Emirates, is also participating in the negotiations.

“Gazpromneft is selling to MOL as the main buyer, and behind this there should be a joint company between MOL and ADNOC. They will regulate their relations, that is, the percentages. These negotiations are not yet finished, so I do not have precise information, but ADNOC’s share is not insignificant,” Dedovic Handanovic told Serbia’s private K1 television.

NIS was placed under US sanctions in early 2025, but these only came into force on October 9 of the same year after being repeatedly postponed.

Washington’s condition for lifting the restrictions was that the Russian majority stake in Serbia’s sole oil company NIS, which supplies about 80% of the country’s fuel consumption, be reduced to zero.