Serbia's NIS, owned by Russia, has been granted another reprieve from U.S. sanctions — Reuters
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury has once again extended the sanctions on the Serbian company NIS, which is under Russian control.
The company’s operating license has been extended until July 31 of this year.
This move allows the company, which operates the country’s only oil refinery, to continue importing crude oil until the completion of the deal to transfer Russia’s controlling stake.
As a reminder, in October of last year, OFAC imposed sanctions on NIS as part of a global strategy to exert pressure on the Russian energy sector due to the war in Ukraine.
Washington’s main demand was the removal of capital from Russian energy giants Gazprom and Gazprom Neft from the Serbian company’s ownership structure.
In January 2026, the Hungarian company MOL signed an agreement to acquire 56% of NIS’s shares, which are currently owned by Russian shareholders.
After a series of technical extensions granted by the U.S. agency, the current deadline was set to expire today; however, the parties were granted additional time to finalize the transaction.
Reuters reports this.
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