Photo: Tanjug/Jadranka Ilić
Serbia receives only 23 percent of its oil from domestic sources, so the biggest question is whether the Croatian oil pipeline, through which 90 percent of this energy reaches Serbia, will follow the potential sanctions of America
Even if America imposes sanctions NIS- in, will Serbia have enough OIL for its own needs - it will depend on the Croatian state company.
Jadranski naftovod (JANAF) is a company that is majority owned by the Croatian state, and almost all the oil imported by the state reaches Serbia through it - as much as 90 percent.
JANAF has signed a contract with NIS for the transport of 10 million barrels of oil until 2026, but the question is whether they will honor this agreement if the United States imposes sanctions on the Serbian oil industry.
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković himself recently, after a meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, expressed his interest in resolving this issue as soon as possible.
"We have to find a sustainable solution that is good for both JANAF and the economy of Serbia," Plenković said after the meeting with Vučić.
"I think that it is not in anyone's interest that anyone, not even Serbia, be left without oil, and Croatia will certainly not be the one that will be the leader of such a policy."
For now, JANAF has not commented on the allegations of sanctions.
Whose oil flows through JANAF
The Adriatic oil pipeline was built in 1979, and the main terminal is on the Croatian island of Krk. The entire area of the pipeline was then part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Today, JANAF distributes oil for the needs of refineries in Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.
That Serbia itself is poorly supplied with Russian oil was shown as early as 2022, when the European Union banned the flow of Russian oil through JANAF.
Then it turned out that the largest share of the total volume of oil imported by NIS has been occupied by "kirkur" type oil from Iraq and companies that do not depend on the import of Russian raw materials for years.
Two-thirds of the "black gold" arrives from Iraq and Kazakhstan through the entire Adriatic pipeline.
What about domestic sources
In 2024, the production of crude oil from domestic sources in Serbia was supposed to reach 811 thousand tons. That is about 23 percent of the total amount consumed by the Republic of Serbia, at least according to the Decision on determining the Energy Balance of the Republic of Serbia for 2024.
The decision was signed by Ivica Dacic.
Serbia has 870 oil and 69 gas wells, and the largest deposits are mostly located in Vojvodina, given that there are a lot of fossil remains from the Pannonian Sea period in that area.
Is America really preparing for sanctions?
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić spoke on January 4 with US Ambassador Christopher Hill about the results of cooperation from the previous year and the improvement of bilateral relations, Vučić wrote on his Instagram.
"The subject of the conversation was also the introduction of sanctions against the NIS," added Vučić.
Vučić also said that the US Undersecretary for Economic Growth, Energy and Environment, Jose Fernandez, confirmed to him that the country will impose direct sanctions on Serbia's oil industry, which Fernandez did not comment on for now.
Christopher Hill stated on December 23, 2024 that there is no announcement that sanctions will be introduced against the Serbian Oil Industry, but that there is US concern because it is the only refinery in Serbia that is majority-owned by Russia.
"Russia continues to wage war against Ukraine, which is barbaric, because this is the 21st century, and it's still going on." There is concern that the NIS in Russian hands is financially helping Moscow in the war in Ukraine. That should be considered," Hill added at the time.
However, he also said that the final decision on NIS will not affect the Serbian economy in any way.
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