Interior minister forms team to investigate NIS sale

BELGRADE - Serbia's Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic has formed a special team to investigate the sale of the oil company Naftna industrija Srbije (NIS), which was once owned by the government.

NIS was privatised in late 2008 when Russia's Gazprom Neft bought 51 percent of the company, while the remaining 49 percent of shares were distributed for free to the Serbian people.

The company was sold for EUR 400 million with a clause that required Gazprom to invest another EUR 500 million to modernise a refinery in Pancevo, which was done in the required deadline.

Officials of the two countries signed in Moscow in December 2008 a set of agreements on energy cooperation, while the presidents of the two nations at the time, Boris Tadic and Dmitry Medvedev, signed a joint statement guaranteeing that the documents would be implemented.

At the same time, Serbia's energy minister from 2008 Petar Skundric and Gazprom Neft CEO Alexander Dyukov signed the sale contract for 51 percent of NIS, while Srbijagas head Dusan Bajatovic signed memorandum of understanding with Gazprom Export head Alexander Medvedev and a cooperation protocol with Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller. The last two documents refer to the construction of the South Stream gas pipeline and the natural gas storage facility in Banatski Dvor, northern Serbia.

A series of statements issued in recent days by the leading party in the government coalition, the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), and the opposition's Democratic Party (DS), which was in power when the said energy cooperation agreements were
signed, mentioned the NIS sale contract.

SNS officials said that the authorities would have their say concerning the contract, which was negotiated by DS...