Hungary's MOL is set to acquire a majority stake in Serbia's NIS oil refinery

HUNGARY - In Brief 20 Jan 2026 by Istvan Racz
MOL has just said it signed a binding letter of intent to acquire a 56% controlling stake in Serbia's Nafta Industrija Srbije (NIS) company, which includes the country's only oil refinery at Pancevo, a retail network and a hydrocarbon exploration and production branch. MOL is buying this stake from Gazpromneft, which was placed under a sanction by the US government in late 2025. Since then, NIS has been unable to buy crude oil through the Croatian Janaf pipeline, which forced the refinery to halt its operation.This acquisition is expected to strengthen MOL's regional role as also the owner of Slovnaft (Slovakia) and INA (Croatia), and also its position as essentially the only customer of the Janaf pipeline, which transits crude oil coming from the Adriatic Sea. This should be beneficial for Hungary's energy security as well. Reportedly, MOL will likely own NIS together with a minority stake investor from the UAE, and the Serbian government would also keep a small stake in the company.According to earlier media reports on the subject, the stake to be acquired by MOL could cost about $1.5bn. So far, there has not been any news that the Hungarian government would have any role in financing the acquisition.For the transaction to get through, MOL has said an approval from the US government's OFAC and some licences from the Serbian government will have yet to be obtained. A favourable circumstance in this regard is PM Orbán's friendly relationship with President Trump and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. The Russian government, with which Mr. Orbán is also on good terms, has already welcomed the deal, through some media comments from Foreign Minister Lavrov on the subject.

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