Vucic and Bocan-Harchenko Discuss Gas, NIS Deadline
A week before the OFAC license for NIS and the gas contract with Russia both expire, Vucic met Ambassador Bocan-Harchenko as oil and gas prices spike and Djerdap runs at a fifth of capacity.
The license issued by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) that allows Serbia’s oil company, NIS (Naftna industrija Srbije), to keep operating runs through September 30, 2026. A week before that deadline, on Saturday, September 12, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met with Russian Ambassador Alexander Bocan-Harchenko. The same month brings pressure from another document as well: the gas supply agreement with Russia, which, according to the president, is also set to expire soon.
Vucic announced the meeting on his own Instagram account, buducnostsrbijeav, and the Tanjug news agency carried the story at 2:46 p.m.
“Talks with Ambassador of the Russian Federation Alexander Bocan-Harchenko on the energy situation in Serbia, given that the gas supply agreement is about to expire, as well as the OFAC license for NIS’s operations,” Vucic wrote.
Neither that post nor the reports that followed from Tanjug, RTS and B92 gave an exact expiration date for the gas contract. For now, the public knows only that the deadline falls near the end of the month, not the specific day.
In the same post, the president added that he and Bocan-Harchenko also discussed other matters of mutual interest.
“We also discussed other topics of mutual interest, and I took the opportunity to thank him for the swift assistance in putting out fires in our country,” Vucic said.
Which Deadline Has Already Been Extended, and Which Is Still Pending
The NIS license has a clearer track record than the gas contract. On August 28, 2026, OFAC extended NIS’s operating license through September 30; the previous license had run through August 28. Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic explained the reason for the extension at the time.
“The extended license allows us to continue supplies while we work on a long term solution for NIS,” Minister Djedovic Handanovic said.
She added that talks between Hungary’s MOL, a potential buyer, and majority owner Gazprom Neft over the sale of NIS are in their final stage. According to her, demand for diesel in August stood at around 200,000 tons, which pushed the Pancevo refinery to raise its oil processing to about 13,000 tons a day, at a time when imports have been further complicated by the Danube’s low water level.
The gas contract with Russia has followed a different path. Srbijagas director Dusan Bajatovic told the National Assembly of Serbia on June 24 that the arrangement had been extended for the next three months, and said it would soon be extended again through the new year.
“There is no investment without gas either,” he said, adding that keeping the household gas price below market level had cost Serbia 200 million euros in lost revenue over the past two years, and that Srbijagas’s profit has not fallen below 100 million euros in any of the past ten years.
The sources diverge on timing. Bajatovic’s June statement describes the extension as an already completed deal. Broker Branislav Jorgic, speaking to RTS on the same day as the Vucic-Bocan-Harchenko meeting, described the extension as something still expected by the end of the month.
“The most important thing for us is the extension of the contract with Russia,” Jorgic said, without stating that this step had already been taken.
Why Oil and Gas Prices Are Rising Ahead of Winter
The meeting also comes against a backdrop of surging energy prices. A barrel of oil cost about $105 on September 13, eight percent more than a week earlier and 57 percent more than a year ago. Jorgic attributes this to a roughly 30 percent shortfall of oil on the market, caused by restricted transport through the Strait of Hormuz and a reduced flow of Russian oil, combined with traders’ fears that the conflict could widen.
Gas on the Dutch TTF index reached 79, up 35 percent on the month and 146 percent on the year. The Djerdap hydropower plant is running at about 20 percent of its standard capacity because of low water levels, forcing Serbia to import electricity.
“When we talk about oil, or oil derivatives, there is fear of the conflict spreading and of higher oil prices. Gas is also a problem. Electricity here depends heavily on our hydropower potential,” Jorgic told RTS.
Portal Srpske has previously reported that Minister Djedovic Handanovic spoke of gas prices above 800 euros and of coal being transported by rail, and that Serbia applied for an additional gas supply while European storage facilities were 67 percent full, at a time when a barrel of Brent crude cost $106 and Amsterdam gas reached as high as 82.59 euros. The September 30 deadline now brings both issues, gas supply and the status of NIS, into the same month, though neither the president’s post nor the wire reports have specified the exact expiration date of the gas contract with Russia.
