Pancevo, the nation’s solely oil refinery, now on ‘scorching standby’ as Vucic faces tough prospect of seizing Russian asset.
Printed On 25 Nov 2025
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has warned that the nation’s solely oil refinery will shut down in 4 days if the US doesn’t elevate sanctions that have been imposed over its majority Russian possession in reference to the Ukraine conflict.
Vucic stated on Tuesday that he would give Russia’s Gazprom and Gazprom Neft, which collectively personal 56.2 p.c of the Petroleum Business of Serbia (NIS) oil firm, 50 days to promote their stake or the Serbian state would take over operations and make a proposal to purchase them out.
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For Vucic, who has shut ties to Moscow, the choice of seizing a Russian asset could also be unpalatable, however he stated that his nation had been left in an “more and more troublesome place” with “no straightforward options” as Washington and the Kremlin clashed.
The US sanctions, which hit NIS in October, have lower off crude provide to the Pancevo refinery, the one oil refining facility within the nation. “It has not been shut down but, however it’s already working at a lowered stage in comparison with regular,” stated Vucic.
“Serbia is going through main issues … Once you impose sanctions in opposition to Russia and its corporations, they find yourself hitting our nation,” he stated, including that the US sanctions could find yourself affecting provide strains and electrical energy manufacturing in the course of winter.
The Balkan nation does have sufficient gas reserves within the brief time period, however a complete shutdown of its solely refinery will halt manufacturing of petrol, diesel and jet gas and should harm the nation’s financial system, Vucic stated.
NIS stated in an announcement that it started preparations for a shutdown of its Serbian refinery by inserting it on a so-called scorching standby that will enable a restart as soon as crude oil turns into out there.
“NIS continues to produce the home market with petroleum merchandise with out interruption, due to beforehand secured shares,” it stated.
The US Treasury Division’s Workplace of Overseas Property Management imposed sanctions on Russia’s oil sector in January – together with NIS, which was granted repeated waivers earlier than the sanctions lastly got here into impact in October.
After sanctions hit, banks stopped processing NIS funds, and Croatia’s JANAF pipeline halted crude deliveries to the refinery, forcing the Balkan nation to search for different provides.
The Serbian central financial institution additionally stated in an announcement that it will cease all cost transactions for NIS if the corporate’s working licence weren’t prolonged.
Washington is looking for full Russian divestment from NIS, and on November 1,5 it gave the corporate’s house owners till February 13 to discover a purchaser for the Russian stake.
Gazprom Neft holds 44.9 p.c of NIS and Gazprom 11.3 p.c of NIS, in response to information company Reuters. Serbia owns 29.9 p.c, with the remainder held by small shareholders.
Oil firm Gazprom Neft is a subsidiary of power big Gazprom.
