Bajatovic: Final discussions between NIS attorneys, US's OFAC due on Monday evening

BELGRADE - Srbijagas CEO Dusan Bajatovic said on Sunday evening final discussions between attorneys representing Serbia's Russian majority-owned oil firm NIS and the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on announced US sanctions against the company were due on Monday evening.

"Whatever the OFAC decides tomorrow, there will neither be nationalisation nor bankruptcy, and NIS will be able to do business in the Serbian market in dinars," Bajatovic told the RTS.

Continued production at NIS is an economic, business as well as a political interest of Serbia, he said.

"NIS has the financial conditions as well as the oil reserves to continue to operate in the coming period and keep the Serbian market supplied without obstruction," Bajatovic said.

He said delisting NIS as a company under US sanctions was not a realistic outcome as it could not happen soon in spite of "good tendencies" in US-Russia negotiations, but that, as in the case of some other companies, NIS could be licenced to continue operations.

He explained that the Russian Gazprom Bank had been licenced for certain activities in order to maintain gas supplies to Europe, and that Rosneft - which he noted had had a 12 pct share of the German market and had still not introduced changes to its ownership structure - was another example of this.