NIS License Expires in 13 Days: Pancevo Refinery Must Run
Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic says the Pancevo refinery must keep operating and that she expects understanding from Washington, with 13 days left until the OFAC license expires.
- The operating license issued to NIS by the US OFAC expires on July 31, 2026, exactly 13 days from today.
- Mining and Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said on July 17 that the Pancevo refinery must keep running and that she expects understanding from Washington.
- The Pancevo refinery covers roughly four fifths of Serbia's domestic fuel consumption.
- Despite the sanctions, no fuel shortage was recorded on the domestic market over 18 months.
Thirteen days separate Serbia from the expiry of the operating license that the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) grants to Naftna Industrija Srbije: the permit runs until July 31, 2026, and it determines whether the Pancevo refinery keeps working. Mining and Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said on July 17 that she expects understanding from the United States and that the Pancevo plant must stay online for the sake of supply security.
The message is not ceremonial. The Pancevo refinery is the country’s only processing plant of this scale and covers about four fifths of domestic fuel consumption. A shutdown there would not be a corporate incident but a supply question for a market that industry, transport, and agriculture rely on every day. That is why the government has treated the license deadline as an operational one, not a diplomatic formality.
Why the July 31 expiry is not just paperwork
OFAC placed NIS on its sanctions list over the company’s Russian ownership, and the short-interval operating licenses issued so far have allowed the refinery and retail network to keep running. Each extension buys time but does not fix the root cause: as long as the majority owner is under sanctions, every new permit is temporary. The current license expiring on July 31 reopens the same question, this time with less room to maneuver because the ownership deal has not yet closed.
Djedovic Handanovic reduced the point to supply: the refinery must run, and Belgrade is counting on Washington not to allow a scenario in which sanctions aimed at Russian ownership end up hitting Serbian citizens. That is the argument the government keeps repeating because it has proved the strongest: despite the sanctions, there were no shortages on the domestic market for 18 months, practical proof that supply holds as long as the plant operates.
Who takes over the Russian stake and what it changes
The key to a lasting solution is a change in ownership. Hungary’s MOL is negotiating to buy the 56.15 percent stake held by Gazprom and Gazprom Neft, with the Emirati company ADNOK as a possible minority partner. If the deal closes, Russian capital leaves NIS, removing the very reason the company landed on the OFAC list in the first place. Until then, the refinery operates in a gray zone between each license extension and the next deadline.
For citizens, the most important consequence is the price and availability of fuel at the pumps, and for the economy it is predictable supply. The ownership deal between MOL, ADNOK, and the Russian shareholders will decide whether future license extensions become unnecessary or whether Serbia keeps operating from one deadline to the next. The 13 days left until July 31 will show whether the minister’s appeal is matched by a concrete shift in the talks or whether the countdown simply continues.
Will the new ownership arrangement arrive before the next deadline Washington sets for Pancevo runs out?
