Serbia oil firm gets US sanctions waiver to Sept 30

Petroleum Industry of Serbia has received another one-month US sanctions waiver, allowing the Serbian oil firm to keep importing crude and operating its Pancevo refinery until September 30, Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said Friday.

The previous temporary licence from the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control had been due to expire at midnight Friday. The waiver covers NIS, whose Russian majority ownership has made it a target under US sanctions aimed at Russia's energy sector.

“The company can continue operating and the Pancevo oil refinery can keep running,” Djedovic Handanovic wrote on Instagram. She said the extension was important because of increased fuel demand and import difficulties caused by low water levels on the Danube.

She also said talks over the sale of NIS were continuing. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told local media Thursday that he hoped a deal could be completed by the end of next month. “For the first time, I feel optimistic and hope that we could wrap up the whole NIS issue in September,” he said.

Efforts to sell the Russian-owned stake to Hungarian energy company MOL have dragged on for months. The sanctions, introduced in January 2025, were repeatedly postponed to allow time for a sale. They were in force only between October and December, forcing NIS to halt production at its sole refinery for several weeks because of a lack of crude.

Temporary licences have been granted again since late December, after talks with MOL were announced.

Serbia sold a majority stake in NIS to Gazprom in 2008 for 400 million euros, or $454 million at current exchange rates, and now owns about 30 percent. Officials say Serbia plans to raise its stake by five percentage points after the sale.