ATHENS, June 6 (Reuters) – Hungary’s largest oil and gas corporation, MOL MOLB.BU, has been granted more time by the U.S. government to negotiate the purchase of a majority stake in Serbia’s NIS NIIS.BEL, an oil company controlled by Russia, MOL said late on Saturday. The deal involves buying a 56.16% stake held by Russia’s […]
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US gives Hungary’s MOL more time for talks to buy Serbian oil firm NIS
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ATHENS, June 6 (Reuters) – Hungary’s largest oil and gas corporation, MOL MOLB.BU, has been granted more time by the U.S. government to negotiate the purchase of a majority stake in Serbia’s NIS NIIS.BEL, an oil company controlled by Russia, MOL said late on Saturday.
The deal involves buying a 56.16% stake held by Russia’s Gazprom Neft (SIBN.MM) in NIS.
NIS is subject to U.S. sanctions imposed in October over its Russian ownership, part of broader measures targeting Moscow’s energy sector following its invasion of Ukraine. Washington has been pushing for the divestment of the Russian stake, and NIS has secured a series of waivers from the U.S. government in the interim.
MOL has received a license from the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to continue negotiations until June 16, it said in a bourse filing.
Negotiations have progressed materially and the current additional license extension allows for the finalization of transaction documentation, MOL said.
MOL secured last month a two-week extension until June 6 to finalise talks before requesting another extension on Wednesday to complete the talks.
(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)