NIS Asks Serbian Government for State Oil Reserves as JANAF Supply Halts

Naftna industrija Srbije (NIS) asked the Serbian government and the Ministry of Mining and Energy on Thursday evening, 12 November, for approval to use crude oil from the state commodity reserves and diesel from operational reserves. The company said the aim is to keep the domestic market regularly supplied while crude deliveries through the Croatian JANAF pipeline remain suspended.

Why NIS needs the reserves

JANAF stopped transporting crude on 6 November after an accident on the Sisak–Slavonski Brod section of the pipeline, where about 500,000 litres of oil leaked. JANAF is the route by which crude reaches NIS's refinery in Pančevo, Serbia's only refinery. NIS said the refinery is adjusting its operations in line with information from JANAF about the repair works, but did not say whether processing has been cut or by how much.

The company did not specify how much crude or diesel it wants to draw, and neither the government nor the ministry had responded publicly by Thursday evening. JANAF has begun a new phase of repairs, according to B92, but no date for resuming deliveries has been announced.

Are petrol stations supplied?

NIS said all of its petrol stations are adequately supplied with all types of fuel. Earlier this week an energy analyst told RTS the damage should be repairable in five to ten days, but warned that problems could arise if the outage lasted about a month.

Wider context for NIS

The supply problem adds to the pressure on NIS, which is majority-owned by Russia's Gazprom Neft and Gazprom and has been under US sanctions. Hungary's MOL holds a US licence to prepare a takeover of the Russian stake. Fuel prices in Serbia are also kept down by a temporary cut in excise duty.