The United States will postpone sanctions against Serbia’s oil company Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) for a fifth consecutive month, a senior Serbian official confirmed to Reuters on 28 July.
This extension, announced just before the current waiver’s expiry, offers temporary respite to Belgrade as it negotiates with Washington for a longer-term exemption to safeguard its energy infrastructure and economic stability.
NIS, which operates Serbia’s sole oil refinery in Pančevo, processes approximately 4.8 million tonnes of crude annually and supplies over 80% of the country’s fuel needs. Its potential disruption threatens not only Serbia but much of the Western Balkans, given NIS’s regional market dominance through its network of 334 petrol stations.
Energy Minister Dubravka Djedović Handanović underscored the gravity of the situation, lamenting Serbia’s “unenviable situation between two great powers, Russia and America” during a recent national broadcast interview. “Negotiations are quite tough,” she acknowledged, confirming Serbia’s formal request to the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for a 180-day extension.
The sanctions, initially imposed in January 2025, targeted NIS as a subsidiary of Russia’s Gazprom Neft, which holds 44.9% of shares. In February, Gazprom Neft transferred 5.15% of its stake to parent company Gazprom in a bid to circumvent restrictions.
Roughly 80% of NIS’s crude imports transit Croatia’s Jadranski Naftovod (JANAF) pipeline, which has threatened to halt deliveries if sanctions take effect, jeopardising a contract valid until 2026. The Pančevo refinery’s paralysis would cascade through Serbia’s economy, which derives 4.5% of GDP from NIS operations and depends on the firm for €2 billion in annual tax contributions.
Croatia’s state-owned JANAF expressed interest in purchasing the Russian stake, framing it as a “natural business symbiosis,” though EU sanctions complicate such transactions.
