The Serbian oil company NIS, whose controlling stake belongs to Russian owners, has received another postponement of sanctions from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury - until July 31. This was reported on Tuesday by Serbia's Minister of Energy Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic on her Instagram, Reuters reports, writes UNN.
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The postponement granted by OFAC will allow NIS, which operates the only oil refinery in Serbia, to continue importing crude oil until the sale of the controlling stake from Russian owners to the Hungarian company MOL is completed. The previous authorization expires on Wednesday.
OFAC imposed sanctions on NIS in October as part of broader restrictions targeting the Russian energy sector due to Russia's war against Ukraine. The U.S. agency demanded that Russian owners — Gazprom Neft and Gazprom — divest their stakes in the company.
On January 19, MOL signed an agreement to acquire a combined 56 percent stake of Gazprom Neft and Gazprom in NIS. After several extensions, OFAC most recently set a deadline for the parties to complete the deal — by this Wednesday.
Serbia also seeks to increase its stake in NIS by an additional 5%.
Currently, Gazprom owns 11.3% of NIS shares, and its sanctioned subsidiary Gazprom Neft owns 44.9%. The Serbian government controls 29.9% of the shares, while the rest belongs to minority shareholders and company employees.