Serbia seeks 90-day delay on US sanctions against oil company NIS
Serbia has asked the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (‘OFAC’) to delay sanctions on state oil company NIS for at least 90 days, Energy Minister Dubravka Đedović Handanović announced on 4 February.
NIS, a subsidiary of sanctioned Russian oil company Gazprom Neft, has requested general or specific licences to maintain operations while seeking ‘an acceptable solution to the ownership structure and management,’ the minister said, reported by Serbia’s Tanjug news agency.
‘Given the importance of NIS for the Serbian and regional economy, we urgently request OFAC to consider immediate assistance,’ said Handanović, who heads Serbia’s working group monitoring OFAC actions. The request is supported by the Serbian and Hungarian governments, she added.
NIS was designated on 10 January as part of broader US sanctions targeting Russia’s oil sector, including parent company Gazprom Neft and its subsidiaries in Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.
