US Court Approval Required To Restructure Gazprom’s Equity Stake In Hungary and Serbia Oil Sector

Further proof of European acquiescence to the United States has shown itself in that European mergers and acquisitions (M&A) lawyers now need to gain accreditation in the United States to handle some cross-border M&A deals in the European Union itself.

The convoluted arrangement has manifested itself through a complex agreement concerning Russia’s Gazprom and Hungary’s MOL Group selling shares in Serbia’s NIS, which must be submitted to the United States Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The OFAC will only accept petitions from American lawyers and puts the United States regulatory system, in this instance at least, above European laws.

The Serbian Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic has said that the proposed agreement would increase its equity in NIS by 5%. She also said that investors from the United Arab Emirates, reputedly the UAE state-owned ADNOC, were expected to join the deal and that the deadline for negotiations on this matter was March 24.

Handanovic said the agreement would enable Serbia to “increase our stake in Serbia’s oil industry by 5% in the future and hold enough shares to give us broader decision-making rights at shareholder meetings and, above all, safeguard the interests of our citizens.”

OFAC is also in legal charge of issuing any future operating license and permitting NIS shareholders to negotiate the sale of the Russian stake. Currently, the main co-owners of NIS are Gazprom Neft with 44.85% and the Serbian authorities with 29.87%, while another 11.3% of NIS shares belong to JSC Intelligence, which is managed by Gazprom Capital LLC. Gazprom directly owns one NIS share, while NIS also has minority Serbian shareholders.

Handanovic said following a meeting with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto last week that Serbia and Hungary hoped to reach an agreement on Hungary’s MOL buying the Russian stake in NIS.

NIS was included in the U.S. SDN List (sanctions) in early 2025. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said at the time that the United States was demanding that Serbia completely remove Russian capital from NIS. That ran against Serbia’s own wishes, again illustrating US dominance over European laws and Washington’s desire to insert its authority over European oil supplies.

NIS is the only company in Serbia that explores for and produces hydrocarbons. The company has a large oil refinery in Pancevo and dominates Serbia’s oil product market. NIS also has a chain of more than 400 filling stations in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, and Bulgaria.