The US has postponed sanctions on Serbia’s Russian-owned NIS oil company, which operates the country’s only oil refinery, for one week until October 15, Belgrade-based Nova Ekonomija news portal reported on Wednesday, citing sources.
The reported extension comes as the US extended a licence for Croatian oil pipeline operator JANAF to transport crude to Serbia for another week, allowing it to complete the delivery of contracted volumes, JANAF said on Wednesday.
NIS did not respond to a request for comment.
The US imposed sanctions on NIS in January as part of a broader effort to isolate Russian energy assets. A series of waivers delayed the measures until October 9, when deliveries were finally expected to stop.
However, JANAF said in a statement that the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) extended the licence for another week upon its request.
NIS remains one of Russia’s few remaining energy assets in Europe. Gazprom Neft holds a 44.9 per cent stake, while an investment unit of Gazprom owns around 11.3 per cent. The Serbian government holds 29.9 per cent.
While NIS said it has sufficient stocks to meet domestic demand for oil and petroleum products in the short term, experts warned that sanctions could complicate longer-term supply arrangements.
JANAF, which transports crude from the Croatian coast to Serbia, said the licence extension would allow it to carry out, “activities that are customary and necessary for oil transportation, with the aim of completing all activities undertaken under the previously mentioned crude oil transportation contract by October 15.”
The next crude cargo scheduled to arrive at Croatia’s Omisalj terminal for transport through the JANAF network to NIS is the tanker Maran Helios, carrying approximately one million barrels of Kazakh crude oil. It is expected to arrive overnight on October 8–9, according to a person familiar with the matter.
(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic, Ivana Sekularac, Robert Harvey and Dari Sito-Sucic; Editing by Edward McAllister, Aidan Lewis)