US grants Serbian oil firm another sanctions waiver

Sanctioned Serbian oil firm NIS had its temporary US operating licence extended until August 28, Serbia's energy minister said on Friday, as talks continued over the sale of its Russian majority stake.US grants Serbian oil firm another sanctions waiverThe extension allows Petroleum Industry of Serbia to continue importing crude and operating its sole refinery despite US sanctions on Russia's energy sector.The latest waiver from the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control had been due to expire at midnight on Friday."It is good news that NIS can import and secure sufficient quantities of crude oil but the continued uncertainty is not," Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said.With record-low water levels in the Danube river disrupting fuel imports, Serbia is increasingly reliant on domestic production, "making it vital for the refinery to operate at full capacity", Handanovic added.Talks on selling the Russian-owned stake to Hungarian energy giant MOL have dragged on for months, with Washington previously setting July 31 as the deadline for completing the deal.A new deadline for the sale is also expected.Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said last week he hoped the transaction could be completed "before the end of September".NIS, which supplies around 80 percent of Serbia's fuel market, was forced to halt production at its Pancevo refinery in December after sanctions cut off crude supplies.It has since received repeated waivers and extensions to the sale deadline.Serbia remains a close Kremlin ally and one of the few European countries not to sanction Russia over the war in Ukraine.It sold a majority stake in NIS to Gazprom in 2008 for 400 million euros .NIS is now 45-percent owned by Gazprom Neft, itself under US sanctions, while Gazprom transferred its 11.3-percent stake in September to an affiliated company, Intelligence.The Serbian state owns nearly 30 percent, with the remainder held by minority shareholders.Officials say Serbia intends to increase its stake by five percent after the sale.oz/gil Gazprom GAZPROM NEFT This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.