BUDAPEST:The acquisition of a controlling stake in Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) by the Hungarian company MOL from Russia’s Gazprom will he...
BUDAPEST:The acquisition of a controlling stake in Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) by the Hungarian company MOL from Russia’s Gazprom will help Budapest, Serbia and Slovakia to resist energy blackmail from Ukraine, said Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto after a meeting with Serbia’s Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic.
"As soon as MOL completes the acquisition of the Serbian oil company, the oil markets of the three landlocked countries - Slovakia, Hungary and Serbia - will function in a coordinated manner, and we will become even more resistant to political blackmail from Ukraine. Of course, we will provide MOL with all the necessary support for this," Szijjarto said on Facebook (banned in Russia, owned by Meta Corporation recognized as extremist in Russia).
He also said that he had agreed with Djedovic Handanovic "to further accelerate preparatory work for the construction of an oil pipeline between Hungary and Serbia. The new transport route will significantly increase the security of oil supplies to our countries."
It is assumed that this route will be used to transit Russian oil to Serbia through Hungary via the Druzhba pipeline.
The NIS Russian owners are forced to sell their asset because they are under American sanctions. In 2025, the US Treasury added NIS to the sanctions list along with its majority shareholder Gazprom Neft. NIS, MOL and Gazprom have agreed on the sale and must obtain permission from the US.
Szijjarto and Djedovic Handanovic met in Washington, where they took part in an international conference on energy cooperation between the United States and Eastern European countries. Szijjarto said that during this trip he would inform U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright and Doug Burgum, the secretary of the interior, who manages the country's natural resources, about attempts of political blackmail by Ukraine, which blocked Russian oil pumping through the Druzhba pipeline.
-News Feed
COMMENTS