Serbia faces the risk of losing access to imported crude oil on Friday (March 28), because negotiations to prevent the introduction of sanctions on the country's only refinery failed, Aleksandar Vučić said.
Exemption from sanction expires at midnight, and if not extended, NIS which is majority-owned by Russia's Gazpromneft and Gazprom, could face the suspension of crude oil supplies.
As the Financial Times writes, NIS manages the only oil refinery in Serbia, with a capacity of 4,8 million tons per year, which meets most domestic needs.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić told the FT that he does not expect an agreement at the last minute, Radio Television of Serbia reports.
"We talked with the Americans, with the Russians, with everyone, in order to find a solution. We haven't seen any change in the attitude of the Americans," Vučić emphasized.
"If the sanctions come into force, we will have to see the reaction of the Russian side as soon as possible, and then we will also have to react," said the President of Serbia.
The Russians want to keep their stake in NIS
According to him, the Russian position is that they want to keep their stake in NIS "at any cost".
Vučić admitted that he is "not sure that Janaf will stop transferring oil" on Friday when the deadline for reaching an agreement to avoid US sanctions expires.
Most crude oil imports to Serbia arrive via pipelines owned by Croatia's Janaf, which would have to suspend operations with NIS in order to avoid violating US restrictions, the FT notes.
"First of all, we need to have a fully secured oil market in our country, which means a full supply of oil to our refinery and our gasoline market," said Vučić.
The agreement on the transfer of ownership of NIS as a solution
The President of Serbia added that the price is not a problem and that, as he says, a solution could be "easily" found if an agreement was reached on the transfer of ownership of NIS.
The British newspaper recalls that in January the US Ministry of Finance called on the Russian state-owned Gazprom and its subsidiary company Gazpromneft to sell their majority stake in the Serbian refinery NIS, threatening that they would face sanctions if they did not.
As stated, the Russian owners refused to sell their 56 percent stake in NIS, but changed the ownership structure so that neither Gazprom nor Gazpromneft have a majority stake in NIS.
The FT states that one of the possible solutions, according to information from the oil industry, is for the Hungarian oil group MOL to step in and buy the Russian stake in NIS.
When asked to what extent the NIS issue is part of the broader Russian-American discussion in the context of ending the war in Ukraine, Vučić said that, in his opinion, it is a "minor" issue for the negotiators.
Source: RTS
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