Dinkić: Russian NIS offer humiliating

A Russian offer to buy 51 percent of NIS for EUR 400mn is humiliating for Serbia, Mlađan Dinkić says.

Izvor: B92

Friday, 28.12.2007.

13:56

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A Russian offer to buy 51 percent of NIS for EUR 400mn is humiliating for Serbia, Mladjan Dinkic says. The minister of economy in the Kostunica cabinet, and the leader of G17 Plus, a junior ruling coalition partner, told Blic daily today that reports about the offer, which stands at half the bookkeeping value of the Serbian oil monopoly, were true. Dinkic: Russian NIS offer humiliating "It turns out that half of our oil giant is worth as much as RK Beograd [a department store chain] which has been bankrupt for the past ten years! The Russians are also asking not to implement European environmental standards by 2012, which would only serve to increase pollution in Pancevo and Belgrade," Dinkic said. Russia's Gazprom is said to have offered EUR 400mn for the majority stake in NIS, and a further EUR 500mn in investment, throwing in the possibility that a section of their South Stream natural gas pipeline could run through Serbia. But Dinkic says they have not offered any guarantees that the pipeline will indeed pass through Serbia. Three different projected routes are considered, one of which could include Serbia. "Since they say that the direction of the pipeline will be set according to market criteria at the end of 2008, I suggest that we also set the price of NIS according to market criteria, and in an international public tender where Russian investors are welcome to participate," Dinkic told the daily. The minister went on to explain that he believes NIS should be excluded from an agreement with the Russian Federation, while the deal itself ought to be limited to natural gas, and concluded that the offer, such as it stands now, is "absolutely unacceptable." But the Ministry of Energy, led by Aleksandar Popovic of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), has not yet come up with any comment on the reports about the Russian NIS offer.

Dinkić: Russian NIS offer humiliating

"It turns out that half of our oil giant is worth as much as RK Beograd [a department store chain] which has been bankrupt for the past ten years! The Russians are also asking not to implement European environmental standards by 2012, which would only serve to increase pollution in Pančevo and Belgrade," Dinkić said.

Russia's Gazprom is said to have offered EUR 400mn for the majority stake in NIS, and a further EUR 500mn in investment, throwing in the possibility that a section of their South Stream natural gas pipeline could run through Serbia.

But Dinkić says they have not offered any guarantees that the pipeline will indeed pass through Serbia. Three different projected routes are considered, one of which could include Serbia.

"Since they say that the direction of the pipeline will be set according to market criteria at the end of 2008, I suggest that we also set the price of NIS according to market criteria, and in an international public tender where Russian investors are welcome to participate," Dinkić told the daily.

The minister went on to explain that he believes NIS should be excluded from an agreement with the Russian Federation, while the deal itself ought to be limited to natural gas, and concluded that the offer, such as it stands now, is "absolutely unacceptable."

But the Ministry of Energy, led by Aleksandar Popović of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), has not yet come up with any comment on the reports about the Russian NIS offer.

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