OFAC GRANTS MOL OFFICIAL LICENSE TO CONTINUE TALKS ON PURCHASE OF RUSSIAN SHAREHOLDINGS IN NIS

BUDAPEST, JUNE 6 /SRNA/ – Hungarian oil and gas company MOL Group has received an official license from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control /OFAC/ to continue negotiations on the purchase of the Russian majority shareholdings in Naftna Industrija Srbije /NIS/ until June 16.

MOL announced on the Budapest Stock Exchange that, following the extension of the license granted on May 22, negotiations have made significant progress and that the latest extension will allow the parties to finalize the transaction documentation. Under a previously issued OFAC license, the Hungarian company had been authorized to negotiate the purchase of the NIS stake until today. MOL requested an additional 30 days from OFAC on Wednesday to complete negotiations on acquiring the Russian shareholding in NIS. NIS had earlier received a special license from the U.S. Department of Treasury allowing it to continue operational activities, including oil refining, through June 16. The license permits the continuation of business operations, contracts, and other agreements involving NIS or its operating subsidiaries, including refinery processing, crude oil imports, transactions necessary for supply security and technical maintenance, as well as financial settlements. The United States imposed sanctions on NIS on October 9 last year due to its majority Russian ownership.