The US Office of Foreign Assets Control has extended the operating licence for Serbia’s NIS until 28 August 2026, allowing the company to continue purchasing crude oil, processing fuel and conducting essential transactions while negotiations over its ownership remain unresolved.
The extension reduces the immediate risk of disruption at the Pančevo refinery, Serbia’s principal domestic refining asset. Its timing is particularly important because low Danube levels are constraining river transport and making alternative imports of petroleum products more difficult.
Serbia’s government described the extension as a temporary stabilisation measure rather than a permanent resolution. The central issue remains NIS’s ownership structure and the Russian shareholding that brought the company within the scope of US sanctions policy.
Negotiations have reportedly focused on a possible transfer of the Russian interest to Hungary’s MOL Group. Such a transaction would materially alter the ownership of Serbia’s largest oil company and require agreement between the current shareholders, the Serbian state, potential buyer and relevant sanctions authorities.
For Serbia, continuity at Pančevo is both an energy-security and fiscal priority. NIS supplies a large share of the domestic fuel market, operates an extensive retail network and remains an important source of tax and dividend revenue. A disruption would increase dependence on imported refined products precisely when transport conditions and regional supply chains are under pressure.
Repeated short-term licence extensions give the parties more negotiating time but do not eliminate financing, insurance, procurement and counterparty risks. Banks and suppliers may remain cautious until the ownership question is settled on a durable basis.
The 28 August deadline creates another compressed negotiating window. Maintaining refinery operations avoids an immediate supply shock, but long-term stability requires an ownership and governance structure that can operate without recurring sanctions exemptions.
