Today the European Union approved an acquisition by NIS, which is a positive sign for East West. Reason being that sanctions have held back NIS/EW from closing a royalty deal on a million acres of heavily developed Oil/Gas leases in Romania. This Royalty will be worth serious money once the deal is completed as it's going to generate revenue immediately.  Gazprom still owns a majority stake in NIS and if the European Union allowed them to acquire HIPP, then acquiring EW's 15% in Romania shouldn't be an issue.

https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/mex_22_5672

Mergers: Commission clears acquisition of HIPP by NIS

The European Commission has approved, under the EU Merger Regulation, the acquisition of HIP-Petrohemija LLC Pancevo (‘HIPP') by Naftna Industrija Srbije a.d. Novi Sad (‘NIS'), both of Serbia. HIPP is a petrochemical company active in the production and distribution of products such as ethylene, polyethylene and synthetic rubber. NIS is a vertically integrated energy company. The Commission concluded that the proposed acquisition would raise no competition concerns given the companies' moderate combined market positions resulting from the proposed transaction. The operation was examined under the simplified merger review procedure. More information will be available on the Commission's competition website, in the public case register under the case number M.10612. (For more information: Arianna Podesta – Tel.: +32 229 87024; Maria Tsoni – Tel.: +32 229 90526)