US Extends NIS Operating Licence to 11 December
The reprieve keeps Serbia’s only oil refinery running into winter while the sale of Gazprom Neft’s majority stake to Hungary’s MOL remains unfinished.
The US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has extended the operating licence of Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) until 11 December, Radio Television of Serbia reported on 30 October — the day the previous licence expired. NIS filed its request on 24 October, stressing that uninterrupted work at the Pančevo refinery is essential to the country’s energy stability.
A year of short reprieves
NIS has been under US sanctions since 9 October 2025 because of its majority Russian ownership and has since operated on a series of short licences covering refining, crude imports and the payments needed to keep supply going. Croatia’s pipeline operator JANAF, which delivers crude to Pančevo, has needed matching licences; its transport contract with NIS runs to 31 December 2026.
The ownership fix
Washington’s signalled solution is a change of ownership. In January Hungary’s MOL signed a heads of agreement to acquire a combined 56.15% stake held by Gazprom Neft and Gazprom. The deal still needs regulatory approvals, chief among them OFAC’s.
Why it matters
NIS supplies most of Serbia’s diesel. The extension removes the immediate risk of disruption at the start of the heating season, but lands in the in-tray of a government not yet formed. How it approaches the MOL transaction will be one of its first economic decisions.
Sources
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