In the week when the Russian oil company "Lukoil" sold the company and its assets in Europe and Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić announced that "our Russian partners and friends got involved and started talking with someone Fr solution for NISDuring the same seven days, a high-ranking employee of Gazprom is also in Serbia, walking around meetings in the Government of Serbia, sources in the editorial office of "Vremena" say.
Based on this information, a deal could be concluded for the fate of the Serbian Oil Industry - if only to find a friendly oligarch from the ranks of Vladimir Putin's associates. Which NIS could buy - then return.
Personal sympathies of Timchenko's friend
First, on November 1, "Lukoil International" was sold to a Cypriot investment fund, a certain Gunvor Group LTE. The Russians actually sold assets in 30 countries and more than 5.000 gas stations, which they had in the territory of Europe. Along with them, 112 pumps from Serbia went on sale. This transaction was inevitable because the USA also put "Lukoil" on the list of sanctions.
The buyer is a classic investment fund, which markets companies, in order to sell them for a higher amount. It is particularly interesting that the company was founded in 2000 by Russian oligarch Gennady Timchenko, a great friend of Vladimir Putin, and his partner, Swedish millionaire Torbjorn Tornqvist. The company soon became one of the largest oil traders in the world, as it sold Russian oil. When America imposed sanctions on Timchenko in 2014, he sold his share of ownership to a partner.
Timchenko has direct ties to Serbia - in 2016, he was appointed honorary consul of our country in St. Petersburg.
"I accepted to be the honorary consul of Serbia because I have personal sympathy for your people," Timchenko said at the time.
Timchenko was hit by new sanctions from the European Union and Great Britain in 2022.
Friend from Gazprom
A few days after the sale of Lukoil, a Gazprom official came to Serbia and went to meetings with the highest political representatives in the country.
"The main task of Belgrade and the Kremlin is to free NIS from sanctions, while maintaining a hybrid way of financing and managing the company, in which the Russians would remain the ones conducting and making decisions," says the source of "Vremena". "That's why an investment fund is now being sought, modeled on the Cypriot one, in which Russian oligarchs and friends of the regime are the owners or are close to the owners. This is also the case with Gunvor Group LTE, because Timchenko only formally left the management, due to other American sanctions that were imposed on him directly."
This would satisfy the minimum criteria set by the US Ministry of Finance for Serbia and NIS, so that the largest oil company in the country could work unhindered.
"As soon as the matter with the sanctions is settled, that fund would probably agree to return the company to the Russians, that is, to officially sell it to them. There is only a question of the price they will receive for this work," adds a source close to the newsroom.
American deadlines and the real market
The US is ready to wait a little longer. The US Department of Finance has not yet introduced secondary sanctions against Serbia, although they could have done so already.
That is why Aleksandar Vučić mentions that we are running out of time. He also added that he "longs for the NIS thing to end, so that he can devote himself to other things."
"I'm nervous about it every day," added Vučić, who previously said that an agreement on the further fate of NIS should be made at the beginning of November.
From an economic point of view, NIS is a company that many would like.
"NIS is a company that has already gone through two major investment cycles, the refinery is in good condition, so it would be very convenient for a company like the Hungarian MOL. They already have a refinery in Rijeka, it is a natural market for them," Goran Radosavljević, director of the FEFA Institute, told Vreme. "Don't be fooled that big players like Shell are interested in NIS. They don't even know where we are, and their gas stations in Serbia are just franchises."
