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US sanctions against Serbia's NIS Oil Company, owned by Russians, are postponed for one week

According to sources, the U.S. delayed sanctions against Serbia's NIS oil company owned by Russia, which operates Serbia's sole oil refinery for a week, until October 15. The Nova Ekonomija portal in Belgrade reported this on Wednesday.

JANAF reported on Wednesday that the U.S. had extended the license of Croatian oil pipeline operator JANAF for another week to allow it to continue transporting crude oil to Serbia in order to meet the contract volumes.

NIS has not responded to a comment request.

The U.S. sanctioned NIS in early January as part of an overall effort to isolate Russian assets.

The measures were delayed until the 9th of October, when they were expected to be stopped. JANAF announced in a press release on Wednesday that, at JANAF’s request, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has extended the measure for an additional week.

NIS is among the last remaining Russian energy assets in Europe. Gazprom holds 44.9% of the stake and an investment unit within Gazprom owns around 11.3%. The Serbian Government holds 29.9%.

Experts said that while NIS claims to have enough oil and oil products to supply the domestic markets in the short term, sanctions will make it more difficult to ensure deliveries over the longer term.

JANAF transports crude oil from the Croatian coastline to Serbia. The license extension will allow JANAF to perform "activities which are customary and essential for oil transportation with the goal of completing the activities under the crude oil transportation contract previously mentioned by October 15.

Maran Helios is the next tanker to arrive in Omisalj, Croatia. It will transport approximately 1,000,000 barrels of Kazakh crude to NIS via the JANAF system. According to a source familiar with the situation, it is expected to arrive on 8-9th October overnight. Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic and Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Edward McAllister and Aidan Lewis

(source: Reuters)