The United States has granted a new 90-day reprieve from sanctions for Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS), Serbia’s state-linked oil company, a Serbian government official confirmed on Saturday.
NIS, which operates Serbia’s only oil refinery, is the most actively traded company on the Belgrade Stock Exchange. The firm employs around 13,500 people and runs a network of more than 400 fuel stations—mostly in Serbia, with roughly 80 in Bosnia and the remainder in Bulgaria and Romania.
Earlier this week, Serbia announced that Russian energy companies Gazprom Neft and Gazprom—jointly holding a 56% stake in NIS—submitted a request to the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), expressing readiness to give up control and influence over NIS in favor of a third party.
The U.S. Treasury initially imposed sanctions in January targeting Russia’s oil sector, including Gazprom, but measures specifically affecting NIS have been postponed several times, ultimately taking effect on October 8.