The United States has delayed by 30 days sanctioning Serbia’s main oil company, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said Thursday, citing a U.S. Treasury document.
“We got an additional 30 days for the oil industry of Serbia,” Vučić said in a post on Instagram, along with a letter showing the details. “Good news for the citizens of Serbia.”
The Biden administration in December announced it would impose sanctions on Serbian oil company Naftna Industrija Srbije, which is majority-owned by Russia’s Gazprom and Gazprom Neft.
The U.S. in January placed its largest sanctions on Russia’s oil sector, under which Gazprom Neft was essentially given 45 days to exit NIS ownership. Serbia has faced long-standing criticism for allowing Gazprom Neft to hold a 50 percent stake and Gazprom an additional 6.15 percent in NIS, the country’s national gas and oil provider. The Serbian government owns only 29.8 percent of the company.
On Wednesday, Gazprom Neft cut its stake in NIS by transferring a stake of about 5 percent to Gazprom in attempt to fend off the looming sanctions.
NIS supplies about 80 percent of crude oil to Serbia, making it almost entirely dependent on Russia.
Hungary’s MOL Group has said it is ready to increase its supplies to Serbia.
“Serbia can always count on MOL Group; we are ready to increase the supplies according to our capabilities. We can even double the quantity of fuels supplied to Serbia,” Csaba Zsótér, managing director of MOL Group’s fuels branch, said last week.
