US grants NIS sanctions reprieve as Gazprom, MOL near deal

The United States has granted a temporary licence allowing Serbia’s Russian-controlled oil refiner NIS to resume operations until January 23, easing supply pressures after sanctions halted crude imports late last year.

NIS, Serbia’s sole oil refiner, has been under US sanctions since October due to its majority Russian ownership. The restrictions blocked crude deliveries via Croatia’s Adriatic oil pipeline operator JANAF, forcing NIS to shut down its Pančevo refinery on December 2, 2025.

The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued the licence permitting NIS to maintain operations, contracts and transactions needed for security of supply and technical maintenance, NIS said on January 1.

“This license allows NIS to maintain operations, contracts and other agreements relating to NIS and its operating subsidiaries, including restarting refinery processing, importing crude oil and carrying out transactions necessary for security of supply and technical maintenance,” NIS said in a statement.

In a separate statement, Croatia’s oil pipeline operator JANAF said OFAC had also granted it a licence to resume crude deliveries to NIS until January 23, 2026.

 “JANAF is fully prepared to immediately ensure uninterrupted transport and supply of crude oil to the Pančevo refinery,” it said, welcoming OFAC’s decision.

JANAF also expressed hope for a swift sale of the Russian stake in NIS, saying it expects “the imminent conclusion of negotiations between NIS and potential partners on the purchase of the Russian stake in that company, which would fulfil the conditions prescribed by the sanctions regime.”

Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic said on January 4 that NIS would resume oil purchases and processing immediately after the holidays and that the Pančevo refinery would begin operating “at full speed” between January 17 and 19, Danas reported.

Vucic said production of oil derivatives was expected to start on January 25 or 26, adding that the first 85,000 tonnes of crude oil should arrive by January 13 or 15.

“I call on people from the management of Gazprom, NIS, and the Hungarians to complete the purchase and sale agreement as soon as possible so that Serbia can get out of the sanctions regime and continue to grow,” Vucic said after a National Security Council session.

“Now it is clear that they are negotiating with them (Hungarians). I call on them to complete the purchase agreement as soon as possible, so that we can get out of the sanctions regime and Serbia can continue to grow,” he added.

Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) previously reported that negotiations between NIS’s Russian shareholders and Hungary’s MOL could be completed by January 23. Serbian officials have previously confirmed that talks are under way.

The United States has insisted that Russian companies exit NIS, where Russian entities control 56.15% of shares. Gazprom Neft owns 44.85%, while St. Petersburg-based Intelligence, indirectly controlled by Gazprom, holds 11.3%. The Serbian government owns 29.87%, with the remainder held by minority shareholders.

Apart from operating the Pančevo refinery, NIS runs Serbia’s largest fuel retail network with 327 petrol stations and supplies about 80% of the country’s fuel consumption. The company also operates in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Romania and employs around 14,000 people.

Vucic said in November that the Serbian state was prepared to take over management of NIS and buy the Russian stake at the “best price” if no third-party deal is reached by January 15.