Washington extended the license of the sanctioned NIS company

The US Ministry of Finance has extended the operating license of the sanctioned Serbian Oil Industry (NIS) until February 20, announced the Speaker of the Serbian Parliament, Ana Brnabic, on Friday. The company was placed on the US sanctions list because Russian companies own most of its shares.

“This means that NIS and its refinery will continue to operate. This gives our citizens, the state and the economy additional time,” Brnabic said at a press conference in the Serbian parliament. The previous license to continue the work, which NIS received three weeks ago, expires at midnight Friday-Saturday.

As reported by Serbian public television RTS, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury (Ministry of Finance) stated in a letter to the authorities in Belgrade that the condition for extending the license is to refrain from transactions involving US entities and the US financial system. Another condition is that the transactions do not directly or indirectly concern any other entity subject to sanctions and are not made on its behalf or for its benefit.

NIS has been on the US sanctions list for over a year

The US included NIS on the sanctions list in January last year to, as it was announced, prevent the war in Ukraine from being financed with money from Russian oil and gas companies. The US administration demands the withdrawal of Russian entities from the NIS.

The restrictions came into force at the beginning of October. Banks then stopped processing NIS payments and Croatia's JANAF pipeline stopped supplying oil to its refineries. OFAC then issued a special operating license to NIS until January 23. Serbia's only refinery in Pančevo resumed operations on January 18, while oil transport was restored on January 13.

Washington also gave the company until the end of March to negotiate the sale of the majority stake owned by the Russians.

The majority shareholder in NIS is Gazprom

Since 2008, the majority shareholders in NIS are Gazprom and Gazprom Neft, the oil company of Gazprom, which owns approximately 96 percent. its shares. At that time, Gazprom Neft owned 50 percent. shares in NIS, the Serbian state – 29.87 percent, and Gazprom – 6.15 percent. The remaining shares belonged to citizens, current and former employees and other minority shareholders.

Although the ownership structure of NIS has changed several times recently, the concern is still mostly in the hands of Russian companies. Gazprom withdrew from NIS in September 2025, and its shares were taken over by another company managed by it: Intelligence from St. Petersburg, according to data from the Belgrade Stock Exchange.

On Monday, the Hungarian oil and gas processing company MOL confirmed the signing of the basic terms of the agreement with Gazprom Neft regarding the purchase of 56.15 percent. shares in NIS. OFAC approval will also be required to complete the final transaction.

Jakub Bawołek (PAP)

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