Naftna industrija Srbije requested a new postponement of US sanctions

(Patria) - Naftna industrija Srbije (NIS) has submitted a new request to the US Department of the Treasury for a postponement of the sanctions imposed on the company due to Russian ownership, NIS announced.

Sanctions were imposed on NIS on January 10 due to so-called secondary risk owing to its connection with Russian Gazprom Neft, which is under Western sanctions due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

However, their implementation has been postponed six times since then based on NIS's requests to the US Department of the Treasury. The last postponement was until September 26.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić stated yesterday that he was unsure how realistic it was for the sanctions on NIS to be postponed again.

"I fear that this will no longer happen and that we will be in an extremely difficult situation. I will do my best during talks with Marco Rubio," Vučić said before leaving for New York for the UN General Assembly.

He announced that he would meet with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the session.

After NIS was sanctioned at the beginning of the year, Gazprom Neft transferred about five percent of its stake to Gazprom, a Russian company not covered by Western sanctions, so that Gazprom Neft's stake in NIS is now less than 50 percent.

Gazprom Neft's ownership stake in NIS has since been around 44.9 percent, the state of Serbia holds 29.9 percent, and the company Gazprom holds about 11 percent. Other shares belong to smaller shareholders.