Serbia has not received special license to continue operation of NIS, will stop refinery in Pancevo - president

MOSCOW. Dec 2 (Interfax) - Serbia has not received from the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office for Foreign Assets Control a special license that would have allowed the continuation of operations for the company NIS, part of Russia's Gazprom Neft ), which has fallen under U.S. sanctions, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic was quoted as saying by Serbian media.

"We do not have good news, we did not receive a positive decision from the United States regarding NIS," Vucic said following a meeting with officials responsible for the country's energy security.

Serbia has made a decision to completely suspend operations at the refinery in Pancevo, and NIS will subsequently decide when it will be stopped, Vucic said.

NIS said on Tuesday evening that the Pancevo Oil Refinery had started suspending the operation of its production units due to the lack of crude oil for processing purposes as a result of the U.S. sanctions. "The activities in the Pancevo Oil Refinery during the operation suspension process are organized so as to have the refinery's units ready to restart once the relevant conditions are met, i.e. as soon as the information on crude oil availability is received. During suspension of the refinery's operations, the employees will be engaged to perform the tasks they carry out during scheduled shutdowns. NIS is continuing to supply the domestic market with petroleum products without interruption, owing to the stocks secured earlier," NIS said in a press release.

"NIS sincerely hopes that regular operations will be reestablished in the shortest time possible in the Pancevo Oil Refinery. The company remains staunchly committed to the efforts to be removed as soon as possible from the U.S. Ministry of Finance's SDN list or to obtain a new special license which will ensure its unhindered operation, in which course of action it is strongly supported by the Republic of Serbia's authorities," it said.

The NIS refinery was placed on hot standby on November 25 amid oil shortages.

The Serbian parliament is drafting an amendment that would allow Serbia to become the owner of NIS.

The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) previously issued a license valid until February 13, 2026, which approved negotiations between shareholders and other interested parties regarding changes to the NIS ownership structure.

The possible sale by sanctioned Russian oil companies of some assets to Hungarian partners was a topic for discussion between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Moscow, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said last week. Reuters had reported, citing Orban's chief of staff, that Hungary's MOL might acquire a stake in Serbia's NIS.

Russian co-owners are willing to sell their 56.15% stake in NIS, Serbian Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic-Handanovic has said. "The name of the third party is not being disclosed, as these are business negotiations between serious companies," she said."

NIS, as a subsidiary of Russia's Gazprom Neft , was included in the U.S. SDN List in early 2025. In this regard, Vucic has said the U.S. was demanding that Serbia completely remove Russian capital from NIS. He recalled that the Serbian government sold a controlling stake in NIS to Gazprom Neft in 2008, and in the subsequent years NIS has generated substantial revenue for the country's budget and facilitated 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.