Anita Orban: All Sides Want to Complete Talks on NIS by Dec. 11

Oil and gas company NIS (BETAPHOTO/EMIL VAS)

Foreign Minister of Hungary Anita Orban has stated that her country expected the agreement on the acquisition of Russia’s stake in the Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) oil company to be reached by Dec. 11 and that all sides wanted to complete the talks on NIS within the deadline.

“According to my information, there is a strong intention of all sides – Serbian, Russian, Hungarian, for this transaction to be completed by Dec. 11,” she said on Nov. 4 in an interview to the Hungarian portal Telex. Commenting on the elections in Serbia, she recollected that Peter Magyar was the first head of government to congratulate the new Serbian authorities, expressing hope for relations between Serbia and Hungary to be raised to a higher level.

Orban said that Hungary was a significant investor in the Western Balkans and that MOL was leading as the key strategic actor. The acquisition of the Russian stake in NIS could also help Hungary in negotiations about the JANAF oil pipeline, since the refinery in Pancevo is supplied with crude via that Croatian pipeline, she said further.

She stated that, “looking at the energy infrastructure of the region, especially regarding natural gas and crude oil, coupled with energy security as a whole, it is clear that Hungary can play a very important stabilizing role. It can be an important transit country and a distribution hub, both for natural gas and crude oil. We have the biggest storage capacity, we are connected with six countries and are able to supply other countries,” Orban said.