Serb NIS to invest US$740 million in refineries by 2012

NIS, Serbia’s largest refiner and fuel retailer, majority owned by Russian group Gazprom Neft , said it would invest US$740 million to complete the overhaul of its refineries in 2012. NIS Chief Executive Kiril Kravchenko said the project would enable the company to harmonize the quality standards of the fuels it produces with those in the European Union. “The main benefit of this project will be in the complete transfer of NIS production to Euro 5 standard and phasing out of the production of lower-standard fuels, which are no longer used in the E.U.,” Kravcenko said. He added that NIS expected the Serbian government, its second-largest shareholder, “to fulfill the obligations … related to the maintaining of the current requirements regarding quality of petroleum products”. NIS has held a monopoly in oil processing since 1999, when NATO bombing heavily damaged its two refineries. The monopoly, approved by the government to give NIS time to recover and become competitive, expired this month when the government cancelled price caps on gas, diesel and heating oil. (January 22, 2011)