Today (Friday, May 22) is the deadline given by the American OFAK to MOL to buy the Serbian Oil Industry. Experts have long mentioned breaking through and extending this deadline due to complex sales and numerous problems, and the state and option B and C
One big nothing.
Until now, this is how all deadlines for agreements and licenses on the Serbian Oil Industry, which the American OFAK threatened NIS, ended. In a saga that has been going on for more than a year, OFAK has extended the operating license of this majority Russian-owned company several times, thus allowing it to be spared sanctions.
Thus, Serbia reached May 22, 2026, which was the deadline for the Hungarian MOL to make an agreement regarding the purchase of NIS.
"For us, this with MOL is not going well, it is not going great. We will always leave the possibility that it will be done properly, but I am not too optimistic". Aleksandar Vučić, President of Serbia, said on the occasion.
He said this after the previous few days everything indicated that the negotiations with MOL had stalled because the Hungarian company plans to shut down part of the refinery in Pancevo if it takes over NIS.
An additional problem, which is not talked about enough, is the possible closure Petrochemicals, a company dependent on and owned by NIS, which employs around 1.500 workers. It is certain, from the business side, that MOL will not need it, and .
The main one in making deals, the interlocutors of "Vremen" agreed, they are certainly Russians and Americans.
Certainly, the agreement with MOL was the state's main plan for solving the NIS issue.
Now one of the options is certainly for OFAK to extend the deadline for an agreement on MOL, and experts think that the new date could be June 21, because until then NIS has an operational license to work.
"After June 21, there is a danger that NIS will lose its operating license and we will again enter the period we had at the end of last year and at the beginning of this year when the Refinery was not working", explains energy expert Željko Marković for N1.
Marković claims that there are several other companies with capital from Germany, Austria and Slovenia, which are interested in that transaction.
If the Hungarian company MOL abandons the purchase of the Russian share in the Serbian Oil Industry, the Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Đedović Handanović previously stated that Serbia has a plan B and a plan C in that case, but not what they specifically mean.
Experts told the media that plan B could be a state buyout, that is, Serbia finally activates the right of pre-emption and temporarily buys out the Russian package of shares, in order to stabilize the company and ensure smooth operations.
Plan C would be to introduce a strategic partner or management. Finding an alternative Western partner or forming a temporary arrangement where the state would take over operational management until the situation on the international market stabilizes is under consideration.
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