Vucic proposes that Serbia buy out Russia's stake in NIS petroleum co - media

BERLIN. Oct 15 (Interfax) - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has proposed that Belgrade purchase Russia's stake in NIS, but the idea was met with little enthusiasm, Serbian media reported on Wednesday.

The media said Vucic made the proposal during a meeting with Gazprom Neft CEO Alexander Dyukov and Russian Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin.

The Serbian media reported that Vucic said "when the situation at the international level gets back to normal the stake will be returned."

But the Russian side did not support the proposal and is leaning toward selling its stake to a third party, possibly the Americans, the media said.

Earlier, Vucic said U.S. sanctions against NIS were unavoidable - they went into effect on October 8. "There will be problems with crude, but we have sufficient reserves," he said, adding that the Pancevo refinery would be able to operate without oil supplies until November 1.

NIS, being a subsidiary of Russia's Gazprom Neft , was included in the U.S. SDN List in early 2025. In this regard, Vucic has said that the U.S. demands the complete withdrawal of Russian capital from NIS. At the same time, he said that the Serbian government transferred control of it to Gazprom Neft in 2008, and over the years, the Russian company has contributed to generating significant revenues to the Serbian budget, as well as the development of many projects.

Currently, the main co-owners of NIS are Gazprom Neft with 44.85% and the Serbian authorities with 29.87%, while another 11.3% of NIS shares belong to JSC Intelligence, which is managed by Gazprom Capital LLC, which holds, among other things, the financial investments of the Gazprom Group . Gazprom directly owns one NIS share, and the Serbian company has minority shareholders, as well.

NIS is the only company in Serbia that explores for and produces hydrocarbons. The company has a large oil refinery in Pancevo and dominates Serbia's oil product market. NIS also has a chain of more than 400 filling stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Romania.