Serbian oil firm secures further sanctions waiver: Minister

Serbia's sanctioned oil firm had its temporary operating licence extended by the United States on Friday, Serbia's minister said,as a potential deal on the Russian exit from the company nears its end. The decision avoids another shutdown of the country's only oil refinery, after US sanctions hit it as part of a crackdown on Russia's energy sector. "The extension of the licence for nearly a month is particularly important at this moment when oil prices are rising on the stock markets every day," Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said.

The new licence is valid until April 17. "The refinery in Pancevo continues to operate, and the supply of petroleum products will remain reliable," she added. Negotiations over the sale of a Russian-majority stakeholding in the Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS) have been ongoing for months with Hungarian energy giant MOL. The US Treasury Department has given NIS until March 24 to complete the sale, and MOL Serbia CEO Milenko Jankovic said he expected to meet the deadline.

NIS, which supplies 80 percent of Serbia's fuel market, was forced to halt production at its main Pancevo refinery in December after long-delayed sanctions cut off crude supplies. The move has had a strong impact in Serbia, a close Kremlin ally and one of the few European states not to sanction Russia over the war in Ukraine. Serbia sold a majority stake in NIS to Gazprom in 2008 for 400 million euros ($460 million).

It is now 45 percent owned by Gazprom Neft, which is under US sanctions, while Gazprom transferred its 11.3 percent stake in September to its affiliated firm, Intelligence. The Serbian state owns nearly 30 percent, with the rest held by minority shareholders. Officials say it intends to raise its stake by 5 percent after the sale.