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Serbia's NIS gets US approval to negotiate sale of Russian stake
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on December 24, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on December 24, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
The US allows Serbia's NIS to negotiate the sale of its Russian stake until March, amid sanctions impacting operations.
BELGRADE, Dec 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. has granted Serbian oil refiner NIS until March 24 to negotiate the sale of its Russian owner's stake, Serbia's state-owned RTS TV reported on Wednesday.
However, RTS said NIS had not obtained an operating licence that would allow it to buy and process crude oil.
The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on NIS in October, as part of broader measures against Russia's energy sector, after granting a series of waivers since January.
The sanctions have halted crude supplies via Croatia's JANAF pipeline, shutting down production at the Pancevo refinery.
Russia's Gazprom has an 11.3% stake in NIS, while its sanctioned oil unit Gazprom Neft holds 44.9%. The Serbian government has 29.9%, with the remainder held by small shareholders and employees.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday that Gazprom was in talks with Hungary's MOL over a possible sale of its majority stake in NIS.
(Reporting by Ivana SekularacEditing by Mark Potter)
NIS, or Naftna Industrija Srbije, is a Serbian oil refining company that is partially owned by the Russian company Gazprom.
An operating license is a legal authorization required for a company to conduct specific business activities, such as buying and processing crude oil.
A stake in a company refers to ownership interest, typically represented by shares, which gives the stakeholder a claim on the company's assets and earnings.
Crude oil is a naturally occurring, unrefined petroleum product composed of hydrocarbon deposits and other organic materials, used primarily for fuel.
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