US Postpones Sanctions on NIS Oil Company

The U.S. has postponed sanctions on Serbia's Russian-owned NIS oil company, which runs Serbia's only oil refinery, for one week until October 15, Belgrade-based Nova Ekonomija news portal reported on Wednesday, citing sources.

The reported extension comes as the U.S. extended a license for Croatian oil pipeline operator JANAF to transport crude to Serbia for another week, as it seeks to complete the delivery of contracted volumes, JANAF said on Wednesday.

NIS did not respond to a request for comment.

The U.S. imposed the sanctions on NIS in January, part of a wider move to isolate Russian energy assets.

A series of waivers delayed the measures until October 9, when deliveries were finally expected to stop. But on Wednesday, JANAF said in a statement that the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) extended it for another week upon JANAF's request.

NIS is one of Russia's last remaining energy assets in Europe. Gazprom holds a 44.9% stake, and an investment unit of Gazprom has around 11.3%. The Serbian government has 29.9%.

While NIS says that in the near term it has enough stocks to supply the domestic market with oil and oil products, the sanctions will complicate longer term efforts to secure deliveries, experts said.

JANAF, which transports crude from the Croatian coast to Serbia, said the license extension would allow it to carry out "activities that are customary and necessary for oil transportation, with the aim of completing all activities undertaken under the previously mentioned crude oil transportation contract by October 15."

The next crude cargo set to arrive at Croatia's Omisalj for transport through the JANAF network to NIS is the tanker Maran Helios, carrying approximately 1 million barrels of Kazakh crude oil. It is due to arrive overnight on 8-9 October, according to a person familiar with the matter.

(Reuters)