While fate NIS- and uncertain, and therefore the question of fuel supply, news is coming that in the first eight months of 2025, Serbia imported more petrol but in the whole of 2023 and 2024.
In the same period, a large amount of diesel was imported, and there is room for an increase in imports derivative there is more, said the Secretary General of the Association of Oil Companies of Serbia, Tomislav Micović.
During his guest appearance on RTS, he stated that all oil companies started increasing imports from January, that is, they rely on supplies from Pancevo. Refineries, and that logistics is a bigger problem than providing a sufficient amount of derivatives.
"There is still room to increase (imports), not like at the beginning, but certainly there is still room for increase... It is necessary that in the entire supply chain there are enough goods where they show up to buy, that there are enough means of transport to bring them to Serbia. The smallest problem is the retail establishments in the country. There are enough of them so that the entire amount needed by the market can be distributed," said Mićović.
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What happens when payment traffic stops?
The problem that will arise when payment transactions are suspended at the pumps of the Oil Industry of Serbia (NIS) next week is that the amount of derivatives that will be put on the market through the NIS pumps is counted in the total balance of supply.
"At the very least, at this moment, we would need some oil derivatives to be trapped in NIS warehouses and not be able to be put on the market due to payment transactions. In that sense, we should also supply it additionally from imports. I sincerely hope that a way will be found so that these derivatives do not simply remain trapped, and we are already working on that, to definitely deliver them to the market, regardless of all other circumstances," Mićović added.
Nationalization of the Refinery?
The refinery in Pančevo stopped a few days ago due to sanctions against NIS, and Mićović states that due to all of the above, this is a great opportunity to "return the ownership of the Refinery to Serbian hands".
"It won't be easy, it won't be cheap either, but to return ownership of the Refinery to our hands, to Serbian hands. The state does not have to literally be the owner who manages it, it can be domestic capital, it can also be state capital that will take it, but what is important at that moment is that the state is not directly involved in the management of the Oil Industry of Serbia," Mićović believes.
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Source: RTS
