Belgrade: Serbia’s sole refinery, majority owned by Russian companies, resumed its work on Sunday due to a temporary reprieve from sanctions targeting Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Serbia’s energy minister said.
Washington’s sanctions on the Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS), part of its crackdown on Russia’s energy sector, forced the shutdown in early December of the refinery, which supplies around 80 percent of the Balkan country’s fuel needs.
But on December 31, the United States granted NIS a temporary sanctions reprieve.
NIS has obtained a licence from the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) allowing it to continue operations until January 23, as well as a license to negotiate the sale until March 24.
“After almost two months’ break, today the production of oil derivatives in the Pancevo refinery has started,” Serbian Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said on Instagram.
She added that she is “proud that we have fulfilled the promise to the citizens” that there will be no consequences to NIS due to sanctions and announced that euro-diesel will be available at the gas stations by January 27.
The measures have hit hard in Serbia, a key Kremlin ally and one of the few European countries not to have imposed sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine war.
After nine months of successive postponements, Washington on October 9 imposed sanctions on NIS, demanding the complete exit of Russian shareholders and preventing the refinery from receiving supplies.
Gazprom is in negotiation with the Hungarian fossil fuel company MOL to sell the 56-percent stake controlled by Gazprom Neft and Intelligence, two subsidiaries of the Russian giant.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in an interview with RTS on Friday that he expects Hungarian oil company MOL and Gazprom Neft to reach a draft contract for the purchase of Russian shares in NIS within one to three days.
This, according to him, should allow for an initial license extension from OFAC.
He added that the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) from the United Arab Emirates is also part of the negotiations with MOL to join the potential purchase.
NIS is 45-percent owned by Gazprom Neft, which has been targeted by US sanctions. Its parent company, Gazprom, transferred its 11.3-percent stake in NIS in September to another Russian firm, Intelligence.
The Serbian state holds nearly 30 percent of NIS, with the rest owned by minority shareholders.