Russia and Serbia agreed on terms of sale 51% stake in refining company Naftne Industrije Srbije (NIS) Gazprom oil . The signing of the agreement is scheduled for tomorrow.Belgrade was able to defend several fundamental issues, in particular credit for the modernization of the Serbian company will assume the Russian holding.Po unofficial information, the transaction was made possible only because Russia was able to insist on “otvyazyvanii” the acquisition of NIS to build the Serbian pipeline South Stream, Newspaper reports today Kommersant . In return, Serbia will receive guarantees the stability of investment benefits in times of crisis and consent “Gazprom oil” to fund social programs, which can be very udorozhit acquisition. The intergovernmental agreement for energy cooperation was concluded on January 25 and ratified by the Parliament of Serbia in September. It provided for joint construction of 400 km countries South Stream gas pipeline through the territory of Serbia, the construction of UGS in Banatski and sale of “Gazprom oil” 51% stake in NIS, owns refineries in Pancevo and Novi Sad aggregate capacity of 7.3 million tons, and two networks WSA, for 400 million plus 500 million investment commitments until 2012. As reported by the Serbian newspaper Politika, the Russian side to further guarantee that the investment of 500 million will be provided until 2012, regardless of the development of the economic crisis. However, the Russian side was able to persuade Serbia to divide the three main part of the Russian-Serbian energy agreement. Earlier, Serbia and especially Mladzhan Dinkich, demanded that the agreement on NIS, UGS and South Stream has signed a package. However, Serbia has adopted the arguments of the Russian side claiming that the signing of a detailed agreement on South Stream is not possible to complete the feasibility study project (it will be ready in 2010). The interim agreement on the pipeline and UGS have already been achieved: a memorandum on the two projects will be signed simultaneously with the contract for the sale of NIS, a vice-chairman of the Gazprom Alexander Medvedev said last week that the documents “initialed and ready for signing” . The Government of Serbia will on the board of directors and supervisory board of NIS. According to experts, investing money in the Serbian processing, Gazprom oil have to sacrifice their prey, says today RBC daily.Serbskoy parties to guarantee that no layoffs of staff until the end of 2012 will not be, but salaries will be indexed in line with economic the situation in Serbii.Snyaty and two other issues that were stumbling block in talks between Moscow and Belgrade. Agreements were reached that NIS monopoly in the domestic fuel market in Serbia will be abolished in 2010 and environmental standards will be respected in accordance with the laws of Serbia. Earlier, representatives of Moscow’s insistence on retaining a monopoly until 2014 and called for a simplified environmental regime for acquisitions Gazprom oil enterprises.
