Troubles that plague the Serbian Oil Industry keep multiplying.
Miša Brkić writes about it in the daily newspaper Danas.
NIS is the owner of subsidiaries in three neighboring countries, two of which are in EU member states – Romania and Bulgaria – and the third is in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since the introduction of the sanctions, all NIS subsidiaries in these three countries have closed their gas stations, frozen their accounts, and ceased operations.
In Romania, NIS has 19 gas stations under the Gazprom brand (NIS Petrol S.R.L.), and on October 9, all financial transactions were suspended. The situation is the same in Bulgaria, where Gazprom/NIS has 23 gas stations – all of them are closed, bank accounts have been blocked, and fuel deliveries have been suspended.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, 42 gas stations operated through the companies NIS Petrol Banja Luka and G-Petrol Sarajevo and employed around 500 workers. Banks have closed accounts, international payments have been blocked, and deliveries from the Pančevo Refinery have been suspended for more than 10 days.
The common denominator of NIS’s operations abroad is losses. The total amount of losses until this year is about 250 million euros. In Romania, NIS recorded a business loss of 160 million euros, and in Bulgaria, 90 million euros. Losses in the operations of NIS subsidiaries in these countries appeared approximately two years ago, when the European Union began to significantly strengthen sanctions against the Russian energy sector (including Gazprom), which made it difficult to do business in Romania and Bulgaria.
The current blocking of business and closing of pumps brings new losses. Estimates are that NIS in Romania and Bulgaria will have losses of 30-35 million euros each, and in BiH, the loss will reach 50 million euros. A total of 110-120 million euros. Old losses and expected new ones will create a business deficit for NIS of a huge 350-360 million euros. To cover this loss, the co-owners of NIS (Gazprom and the State of Serbia) will have to provide capital in relation to the ownership share (57-43 percent). This concretely means that the loss will have to be covered by Serbian taxpayers and thousands of small shareholders who own a share in the capital of NIS through state and private funds.
Away from public scrutiny, Gazprom and the state of Serbia, as co-owners of NIS, initiated the sale of subsidiaries in Romania, Bulgaria, and BiH two years ago, when the USA and the EU increased sanctions.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions stopped any further negotiations.
Serbianism 