BELGRADE (Reuters) -Serbia has sufficient fuel reserves to supply the domestic market, the government said on Monday, as the country’s crucial NIS oil refinery faces possible shutdown over U.S. sanctions on its Russian owners.
NIS, which covers most of the country’s needs, last week requested a licence from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to continue operating as its majority Russian owners seek a buyer for their stake.
The Serbian government said in a statement that it had discussed the energy situation in the country and how to maintain a stable supply of petroleum products to the market.
‘NO REASON FOR CONCERN’
“The economy and citizens have no reason for concern, as there are sufficient quantities of all petroleum derivatives,” the government statement said.
Gazprom Neft controls 44.9% of NIS and Gazprom 11.3%. Serbia owns 29.9%, with the rest held by small shareholders. Washington is seeking complete Russian divestment from NIS and has given the company’s owners three months to find a buyer.
OFAC placed sanctions on Russia’s oil sector in January, but their implementation in relation to NIS was postponed repeatedly before finally taking effect on October 8.
Banks have stopped processing NIS payments and Croatia’s JANAF pipeline has stopped delivering crude oil to the refinery.
On Oct 29, Serbia’s energy minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said that the NIS refinery, located just outside capital Belgrade, will not be able to operate beyond November 25 without new crude supplies.
NIS operational reserves and all other reserves stored with NIS totalled 89,825 tons of diesel and 53,648 tons of gasoline, Djedovic Handanovic said on Sunday.
Last week, she said the government had approved the import of 38,000 metric tons of petrol and 66,000 tons of diesel for state reserves.
(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Conor Humphries)
