OFAC Extends NIS License to September 30, MOL Too
OFAC extended NIS's operating license to September 30, giving Hungary's MOL the same deadline for its talks on buying Gazprom Neft's stake, as the Pancevo refinery runs at higher output.
Serbia’s oil industry received a new operating license late Wednesday from the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), valid until September 30. The previous license had been set to expire on August 28, the same day Washington’s decision arrived. Hungary’s MOL received the same September 30 deadline to continue its negotiations with Gazprom Neft over buying the majority Russian stake in NIS.
Mining and Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said the extension allows the company to keep operating and lets the Pancevo oil refinery continue running.
In an unstable international environment, it’s important that we can rely on ourselves as much as possible, meaning on our domestic refinery.
The minister added that attacks on refineries in Russia and Saudi Arabia are affecting the availability and price of diesel on the global market, which shows the importance of the Pancevo refinery’s uninterrupted work for domestic supply.
What Does the New License Cover, and Until When?
The new license explicitly covers the import and delivery of crude oil to the Pancevo refinery, allowing NIS to continue its operations. The company filed a new request with the US Treasury Department on August 21 for a special license, as the previous deadline was approaching.
Over August, the refinery raised crude processing to about 13,000 tons a day, as diesel demand that month reached around 200,000 tons. The minister also said import options are further limited by low water levels on the Danube, while the harvest currently underway is pushing fuel consumption even higher.
“The extended license lets us continue supplying fuel, while work continues in parallel on a long-term solution for NIS,” Djedovic Handanovic said.
NIS has been on the sanctions list since January 2025 over its majority Russian ownership. The company’s ownership structure consists of Gazprom Neft with 44.9 percent, Gazprom with 11.3 percent, and the Serbian state with 29.9 percent, with the remaining shares held by minority shareholders and employees. Despite the sanctions, OFAC has extended the operating license every time so far, keeping the domestic market supplied without interruption at the refinery.
For MOL, this is already the second extension of its deadline to negotiate the purchase of the Russian stake in NIS: its previous license was issued on July 31 and ran until August 28, exactly one month. The new September 30 deadline repeats the same pattern, another month for the same transaction. According to the minister’s earlier statements, the Hungarian company’s negotiations with Gazprom Neft are in their final stage, though neither side has announced a date for signing.
This site reported yesterday that the license was expiring and that a decision from Washington was pending, alongside a statement from Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic that he expects the NIS issue to be resolved during September. That forecast now has a concrete deadline: September 30 is both the limit OFAC has set and the month the president earlier said could bring a resolution. Balkan Energy portal editor Jelica Putnikovic said on RTS (Radio Television of Serbia) that the new extension looks like the previous ones, though she voiced hope it would be the last.
I hope that what our officials have said, that they have positive signals, means the negotiations could finally reach their conclusion in September.
The next deadline for NIS and MOL now falls on September 30, when it will become clear whether the sale of the Russian stake in the company has finally been concluded or whether OFAC needs to issue yet another extension.
