In 2021, despite the market instability Serbian oil company NIS will invest more than 170 million euros in development projects, said CFO of NIS Anton Cherepanov.
Cherepanov said that the main goal in 2021 is to ensure stable operations of NIS and continue with further development. The priority must also be to work on systemically improving efficiency in all fields. Some of the measures introduced in 2020 to increase efficiency and reduce costs will be valid in the current year as well. But the savings will not be at the expense of the further development of the company. NIS plans to invest more than 170 million euros in capital projects in 2021, and thus enable the company to continue to strengthen its competitiveness on the regional market.
He reminded that in 2020, which was one of the most challenging in the history of the oil industry, NIS managed to maintain the company’s liquidity and market stability by working together with the largest shareholders, employees and management, with constant care for the health of employees and consumers. In 2020, it completed one of the most important investments in the company’s history – Deep Processing Unit at Pancevo oil refinery. The company continued to develop its concessions in Romania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, put into operation 14 petrol stations in Serbia and neighboring countries and continued with the digital transformation.
Despite the negative trends in 2020, NIS’ earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) remained positive at the level of 135 million euros billion dinars. NIS finished the second half of the year with a net profit of 23 million euros, but, unfortunately, due to the impact the unfavorable market conditions had on it performance in the first half of 2020, the final result of the year was a loss of 65 million euros. In 2020, NIS produced 1,259 million tons of oil equivalent in Serbia and at its concessions abroad. The Pancevo refinery processed 3,613 million tons of oil and semi-finished products. Total sales in 2020 reached 3,538 million tons, and export increased by 7 % compared to the previous year.
