Nis A.D. Novi Sad (Serbia)

Serbian oil monopoly Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) is one of the country's largest companies. It is primarily engaged in the following areas - oil and gas exploration, production and refining, sales and distribution of petroleum products, implementation of petrochemical and energy projects. The company, which was established in 1968, operates two refineries in the towns of Pancevo and Novi Sad. Approximately USD 700 million were needed to upgrade both facilities that were badly damaged during the NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia in 1999. It also runs a LPG production unit in Elemir. In July 2005, NIS signed a memorandum of understanding on setting up a 50-50 joint venture with Russia's oil company LUKOIL. Under the agreement, NIS would refine 1.5-4.5 million tonnes of LUKOIL's crude per year.
In October 2005, NIS launched a restructuring plan designed to split the company into four units by spinning off non-core from core activities. The government set up two public companies operating oil and gas pipelines. The third company is NIS and it handles crude oil exploration, refining, distribution and trade. Another unit is in charge of the hotels and restaurants previously run by the monopoly.
At end of January 2009, Russian Gazprom paid EUR 400 million to acquire a 51% stake in NIS. The Russians took control of the Serbian oil monopoly through oil company Gazprom Neft.
In 2010, as a part of the government’s share giveaway plan, some 5 million citizens, employees and former workers received free NIS shares and thus the state decreased its stake in the company from 49% to 29.7%. In June 2010, NIS was transformed into a public company and on August 30th it was listed on the local stock exchange.
Naftna Industrija Srbije operates a retail network of more than 350 retail facilities on the territory of Serbia. It exports motor fuel, benzene, toluene, asphalt bitumen and industrial bitumen to the EU, Ukraine, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina.