Serbia's Russian-owned NIS oil firm secures new US sanctions waiver, state TV reports (updated)

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30/10/2026 17:13

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BELGRADE, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Serbia's Russian-owned NIS oil company has secured a new waiver against US sanctions until December 11, state RTS TV reported on Friday.
     A previous waiver by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) expires on Friday.
The new one will allow NIS, which operates Serbia's only oil refinery, to continue importing crude oil until the sale of a Russian majority stake in the company to Hungarian energy company MOL MOLB.BU.
OFAC imposed sanctions on NIS in October 2025 as part of wider measures targeting Russia's energy sector over the war in Ukraine. 
It has since extended a series of waivers for NIS  to allow for the divestment of the combined 56% stake held by Russia's Gazprom Neft SIBN.MM and Gazprom GAZP.MM in the company.
NIS imports oil primarily from Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Nigeria, Guyana, Norway, the US, Libya and Iraq. 
The company covers around 80% of market demand in Serbia, where a leaderless student-led protest movement unseated longtime leader Aleksandar Vucicin in elections last Sunday, heralding a new era in the Balkan country.


 (Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic and Jana Simovic; Editing by Susan Fenton)
 ((aleksandar.vasovic@thomsonreuters.com))