Expert: OFAC License for Mol Move Toward Solution for Nis Oil Company

Oil and gas company NIS (BETAPHOTO/EMIL VAS)

Association of Energy Sector Specialists member Zeljko Markovic said on Nov. 6 that an additional license issued by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to Hungary's MOL with regard to its possible acquisition of an ownership stake in the Serbian NIS oil company, will be valid until Feb. 28, 2027 and was a step toward solving Serbia's petroleum product supply problem.

"The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control's license for the MOL and MOL Serbia Investment Kft companies is a step toward solving the issue of ownership of NIS and the normalization of the company's operation," Markovic told BETA.

He said NIS has been expecting extensions of OFAC operating licenses almost every month for two years because the U.S. is trying to punish Russia with sanctions for the war in Ukraine, and so has been squeezing Russian companies out of ownership in Europe. He stressed that the license that MOL has informed the public it received does not encompass the completion of a transaction that would result in the end of Russian ownership of and control over NIS, and that any permanent solution would require OFAC's special approval.

For this reason, he said, caution is advised, but the license confirms that there "has been certain progress" on the path toward a permanent solution for ownership of NIS. Additional confirmation "that this process exists" came, he said, in the form of a press release by Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orban that all sides -- Hungarian, Russian and Serbian -- wish to complete the negotiations on NIS by the deadline of Dec. 11, when the latest license issued to NIS expires.