Oil Industry of Serbia (NIS) announced on Friday (September 19) that it has submitted a new request to the United States Department of Finance for the issuance of a special license that postpones the full application of sanctions and enables the company's operational activities to be carried out smoothly even after September 26, when the term provided for in the previous license expires.
On the same day, the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić told Blic TV that he is afraid that there will be no more delay in the introduction of American sanctions against the NIS.
"I am afraid that there will be no more delays and I am afraid that we will be in an extremely difficult situation," said Vučić.
He added that during his stay in the United States of America, where he will also meet with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, he will do his best to solve this problem and ask for help.
At the end of August, the US Ministry of Finance postponed the application of sanctions to NIS for the sixth time, this time until September 26.
The Americans want the Russians to leave the NIS
On January 10, the United States placed NIS on the sanctions list for its stake in the Russian company Gazprom Neft in order to prevent Russia from using energy revenues for the war in Ukraine.
The Russian companies Gazprom Neft and Gazprom have the majority stake in NIS (56,15 percent), while Serbia owns almost a third of the ownership share. From the documents published on the Belgrade Stock Exchange at the end of February, it can be seen that NIS tried to avoid sanctions by Gazprom Neft reducing its ownership share in the company from 50 to around 44,85 percent immediately before the sanctions came into force, and that at the same time Gazprom increased its share in NIS from 6,15 to 11,30 percent.
However, this is not enough for the USA, which demands that Russia must completely exit ownership of the Serbian Oil Industry.
