Serbia agrees oil/petchems handover to Gazprom

22 January 2008 17:23  [Source: ICIS news]

PRAGUE (ICIS news)--Serbia’s government on Tuesday agreed a draft deal with Russia to sell a 51% stake in national oil monopoly NIS - the parent company of petrochemical firm HIP Petrohemija - to Gazprom Neft, the oil arm of gas giant Gazprom.

No information was immediately available from Serbia’s Ministry of Economy on what influence the transaction would give Gazprom over HIP Petrohemija, but a spokesman for the ministry added that the deal would be contingent on Russia cooperating in including Serbia in the South Stream gas pipeline project.

This is designed to bring Russian gas to Europe along a route that runs under the Black Sea, through the Balkans and through to Italy, and should secure cheaper gas for Serbia.

The spokesman said he could not yet disclose the financial terms of the agreement, to be signed in Moscow as part of a wide-ranging energy pact on 25 January.

Analysts are concerned the deal might be politically motivated, in that it could be part of a payoff for Russia’s support of Serbia’s opposition to independence for the province of Kosovo.

If the deal goes ahead oil and petrochemical firms who had hoped to win a stake in NIS through a tender - including Hungary’s MOL, Austria’s OMV, Poland’s PKN Orlen and Romania’s Rompetrol - will lose out.

By: Will Conroy
+44 20 8652 3214

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