Businessman and owner of "Point Group" Zoran Drakulić said that because American sanction Oil Industry of Serbia (NIS) it should be nationalized or bankruptcy proceedings should be carried out due to large debts to banks and future costs.
Drakulić said that, according to the nine-month balance sheet, NIS owes the banks about 540 million euros.
"Everything indicates that the state will have to take over NIS, through nationalization or through the introduction of bankruptcy. Our banks demand 540 million euros from NIS and that debt should be declared due. It is not realistic for the state to buy Russia property for 1,46 billion euros and to compensate the debt to the banks, because with other costs it would cost us about three billion euros," said Drakulić to the Beta news agency.
According to him, the Americans will not deviate from the sanctions against NIS, and the Russians do not want to be without the Serbian oil company.
"The Americans are not allowing the financial transaction of the sale of the Russian stake in NIS to take place, and the Russians are keeping us on a 'short leash' for gas. The Russians have now not offered us a long-term supply contract gas, already short-term for only six months. The problem is sensitive and delicate, we will have a shortage of derivatives, but the state must take steps to prevent and mitigate energy a crisis that could have a devastating effect on industry, agriculture and the population," Drakulić said.
Although the USA announced sanctions against NIS 11 months ago, he added, the government in Serbia has not prepared for alternative ways of supplying energy.
"The question arises why our government did not solve the NIS problem in 2022, when the then Prime Minister Ana Brnabic was benevolently informed by the German side that NIS was to be taken over, i.e. to buy out the Russian share. Importing gas from Azerbaijan is an empty story. We have to turn to the use of liquefied gas, but for that we need about two years of preparation. In the meantime, we can run out of gas from Russia," said Drakulic.
Russia is not benevolent towards Serbia
He pointed out that the Russian side is not benevolent towards Serbia at the moment.
"If they wanted, the Russians would have found a solution for Serbia to take over NIS and they would not have kept us in an unenviable situation for gas," he said.
Drakulić pointed out that the state should not wait another 40 days, which are the remaining 50 days that the President of Serbia gave the Russians, to resolve the fate of NIS.
"Every day we listen to different unreasonable statements, one is told by the minister of energy, and the other is told." Dusan Bajatovic and other people from the top of the government. The fact is that the Americans will not allow the sale of NIS and threaten to introduce secondary sanctions against the National Bank of Serbia (NBS), which would cause a complete economic collapse," said Zoran Drakulić.
Source: Beta
