Serbia to amend budget law to take control of Russian-owned refinery NIS

Serbia is set to amend its draft budget law to potentially take control of Russian-owned, US-sanctioned oil refinery NIS, Parliament's Speaker Ana Brnabić announced on November 25.

Brnabić, a close ally of President Aleksandar Vučić, said the parliament will debate the proposed amendments, prepared by the ruling SNS party, on November 26–27, Caliber.Az reports, citing Euronews Serbia.

"One of the amendments that will be submitted will be the one that will foresee the circumstance that at some point we will take over NIS," she stated.

The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on Russia’s oil sector in January, including NIS, which is majority-owned by Gazprom Neft and Gazprom.

While NIS received repeated waivers, the sanctions fully took effect in October.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić warned that the NIS refinery could shut down within four days if the US does not lift the sanctions, threatening fuel supplies ahead of winter.

Serbia’s oil company NIS (Naftna Industrija Srbije) — which operates the country’s only oil refinery — is majority‑owned by Russian firms, notably Gazprom Neft and Gazprom.

The sanctions have disrupted crude supplies (e.g., via Croatia’s JANAF pipeline), raising fears that Serbia’s refinery could halt operations and jeopardise winter fuel availability.

By Jeyhun Aghazada