site.btaUPDATED NIS Refinery Fails to Receive Waiver from US Sanctions, Operations to Halt

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that Serbia’s national oil company, NIS, which has been under US sanctions since October 9 due to majority Russian ownership, has not received a licence to operate from the United States. This will lead to the refinery's operations being halted, Vucic added. 

“We expected to receive a sanctions waiver from the U.S. government to continue operating the refinery, but we did not get a positive decision. I am disappointed,” Vucic said in an extraordinary statement streamed online, following a meeting with the country’s energy stability and security team.

"We have agreed to secure payment transactions with NIS until the end of the week for salaries and suppliers (...) and then we will make decisions on a day-to-day basis," said the Serbian President, adding that the State is now taking a risk because the National Bank, as well as other banks in Serbia, could face secondary sanctions at any time.

"We have continued to import petroleum derivatives. Our warehouses are full," Vucic said. He specified that stocks of all types of fuel in Serbia are sufficient until the end of January, but in his words, people will have to use petrol stations other than NIS. "We have no problem with fuel, we have opened new import channels, but we have a problem with logistics. Tankers will have to buy fuel from some remote locations and therefore logistics costs are higher, and in addition [on the agenda] is the issue of the number of tankers. There are countless problems," he admitted.

"If we do not get a gas deal with Russia by Friday, we will start talks on Monday and look for gas from somewhere else," Vucic said.