US extends sanctions waiver for Russian-owned Serbian refinery

Saturday 24 January 2026 - 13:20

By: Dakir Madiha

US extends sanctions waiver for Russian-owned Serbian refinery

The US Treasury Department has granted a one-month extension on sanctions relief for Serbia's NIS oil company, majority-owned by Russian entities, pushing the deadline to February 20, 2026. This move provides the Balkan nation breathing room to secure winter fuel supplies amid ongoing talks to divest Russian stakes in the firm, according to public broadcaster RTS.

Announced on Friday, the extension comes just as NIS restarted operations at its sole refinery in Pančevo on January 18, following a nearly two-month shutdown triggered by US sanctions in October 2025. The facility, with an annual processing capacity of 4.8 million tonnes, meets about 80 percent of Serbia's diesel and gasoline needs and over 90 percent of its kerosene demand. NIS reported securing enough crude oil to sustain production through February, with the first post-restart diesel batches expected in service stations by January 27.

The refinery had halted work in early December 2025 when sanctions blocked crude deliveries through Croatia's JANAF pipeline. This latest waiver aligns with a preliminary binding agreement signed days earlier between Hungary's MOL Group and Russia's Gazprom Neft to transfer the latter's 56.15 percent stake in NIS, targeting a final deal by March 31, 2026.

Serbia's Energy Minister Dubravka Đedović Handanović noted the country will boost its own 29.9 percent stake by five percentage points, with potential minority investment from UAE partners including ADNOC. The US has given until March 24 for completing the Russian stake sale, pending approval from the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control and Serbian authorities.

The original sanctions, imposed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control in January 2025 and enforced in October, target Russian energy assets over Moscow's war in Ukraine. NIS, controlled by Gazprom Neft and Gazprom, fell under these measures. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić had warned of economic collapse without crude supplies, prompting Belgrade to budget 1.4 billion euros for potential emergency nationalization of the company.