The coming referendum puts off privatization of NIS

Tender for privatization of the Oil industry of Serbia (NIS) will probabley be postponed because of the activities of referendum and elections, as announced by the Assisant of Minister of mine and energetics Slobodan Sokolovic.

He said that the Government of Serbia had not yet reached this decision, but that this was something tought over, as it is obvious and logical that the state has more important political issues at the moment. Sokolovic also said that for now it was sure that the tender for privatization of NIS won’t be published by the mid October, as it had been earlier mentioned.

The Assistant of Minister of energetics said that it was still being estimated the consequences possible for NIS if the privatization was stopped at this moment.

According to his estimation, if the postponement was too long it could bring damage to NIS, because now it was the best time for privatization of the national oil company as the price of raw oil on the world market was pretty high, and because of the insufficiency of refinery capacities in the region.