Serbia risks losing access to oil imports as sanctions deadline looms, Vucic says

(Reuters) -Serbia still hopes for a reprieve on U.S. sanctions on the country's sole oil refinery, even as discussions to prevent them by a deadine on Friday appear to have failed, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday.

A waiver on sanctions is due to expire at midnight on March 28 and, if not extended, the NIS refinery, majority-owned by Russia's Gazprom Neft and Gazprom, could face crude supply cuts.

NIS operates Serbia's only oil refinery, which has annual capacity of 4.8 million tons and covers most of the Balkan country's energy needs.

Vucic said Serbia still hopes for a last-minute deal, but added he was not optimistic.

"We are still hoping, but If you are asking me whether I believe in it (sanctions reprieve), I do not," Vucic said in a live TV broadcast by state RTS TV.

Earlier in the day the Financial Times quoted Vucic as saying he was not hopeful about the extension.

"We've been talking to the Americans, to the Russians, to everybody" about finding a solution, Vucic told the FT in Belgrade. "We didn't see any changes in the American attitude."

The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) initially placed sanctions on Russia's oil sector on January 10 and gave Gazprom Neft 45 days to exit ownership of NIS.

After the first request by NIS for a sanctions waiver, the OFAC delayed sanctions for 30 days on February 27 to allow NIS to find a solution with the Russian companies. On February 26, Gazprom Neft transferred stakes of around 5.15% in NIS to Gazprom in an attempt to ward off sanctions.

The changes mean Gazprom Neft, now subject to more severe Western sanctions due to its heavier focus on oil income, no longer has an absolute majority in NIS.

They echoed a move in 2022 that allowed Gazprom Neft at the time to avoid European Union sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Gazprom Neft now owns 44.85% of NIS, while Gazprom - whose income comes mainly from gas - has 11.3%. The Serbian government holds a further 29.87% of stakes, with small shareholders accounting for the remainder.

NIS imports about 80% of its needs through Croatia's pipeline operator Janaf, with the remainder covered by its own crude oil output in Serbia. In 2024 the two companies agreed on the transport of 10 million tons of crude oil by December 2026.

Earlier this month, Economy Minister Ante Susnjar of Croatia, an EU member state, said Janaf was considering the purchase of all of Russia's stake in NIS.

(Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh and Aleksandar Vasovic in Belgrade; editing by Susan Fenton, Mark Heinrich and David Evans)