Vucic: Serbia has one week to solve the NIS refinery crises

Aleksandar Vucic, president of Serbia, said that Serbia had seven days to decide how to protect fuel supplies at the Serbian NIS refinery without nationalisation. Washington wants to see the Russians completely divested from NIS which runs Serbia's sole refinery. On Saturday, it gave its owners three months in order to find a buyer.

Officials project that there is only enough crude oil for the Serbian refinery to run until November 25, according to officials.

Vucic, speaking on Sunday at a live broadcast of a government meeting on state TV, said: "The refinery must run. The decision must be taken within the next seven-day period."

Vucic stated that Serbia does not want to nationalise Russian assets, and it is prepared to offer a price above the market value for the company if Russian negotiations with unnamed Asian or European partners fail.

Gazprom and Gazprom, both Russian companies, hold a combined 56% controlling stake in NIS. They have informed the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control of their desire to transfer control to another party.

Sinisa Mali, the Finance Minister of Serbia, warned Sunday that continued sanctions against NIS would undermine Serbia's credit rating and foreign investments. Gazprom and Gazprom control 44.9% each of NIS, while Serbia holds 29.9%. Small shareholders hold the remaining shares. (Reporting and writing by Aleksandar Vaovic, Angeliki Koutantou, David Goodman).

(source: Reuters)