BELGRADE (Reuters) -The United States Treasury has granted a second 30-day extension to the Serbian oil company NIS’s sanctions waiver, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Friday.
The introduction of sanctions could have resulted in crude supply cuts for NIS, which operates Serbia’s only oil refinery, with an annual capacity of 4.8 million tons, and covers most of the Balkan country’s fuel needs.
It is majority-owned by Russia’s Gazprom Neft and Gazprom.
The waiver had been due to expire at midnight.
“We have received another 30 days of sanctions reprieve for NIS … Thanks to our American partners for understanding,” Vucic said in a post on Instagram.
The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control initially placed sanctions on Russia’s oil sector on January 10, and gave Gazprom Neft 45 days to exit ownership of NIS.
OFAC previously delayed sanctions for 30 days on February 27 to allow the company to find a solution with the Russian companies.
On February 26, Gazprom Neft transferred stakes of around 5.15% in NIS to Gazprom in an attempt to ward off sanctions.
The changes mean Gazprom Neft no longer has an absolute majority in NIS and it follows a similar change in 2022 when the company avoided EU sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
Gazprom Neft now owns 44.85% of NIS, while Gazprom has 11.3%. The Serbian government holds 29.87% of stakes, with small shareholders accounting for the rest.
NIS imports about 80% of its needs through Croatia’s pipeline operator Janaf. The remainder is covered by its own crude oil production in Serbia.
(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Writing by Antonis Pothitos; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Deepa Babington)
