Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic attending a press conference in Belgrade, Serbia, 09 October 2025. U.S. sanctions targeting the Gazprom Neft-owned Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) have cut off the nation's primary crude oil supply, threatening to halt its only refinery and sparking fears of an energy crisis. EPA/ANDREJ CUKIC "The extension of the licence for almost a month is particularly important now when oil prices are jumping ... daily," Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said in a statement.
NIS operates Serbia's only oil refinery in the town of Pancevo, just outside Belgrade and is the biggest supplier and fuel retailer in the Balkan country.
Serbia on Thursday extended a ban on crude oil and fuel product exports until April 2 to safeguard its market from shortages and price spikes stemming from the war on Iran.
The suspension applies to the export of diesel, gasoline and crude oil by all modes of transport.
Kazakhstan was Serbia's largest crude supplier last year, accounting for nearly 60% of imports, followed by Nigeria and Guyana.
All imported crude arrives via tankers to the Croatian island of Krk and is then transported through the JANAF JANF.ZA oil pipeline operator.
JANAF said on Friday it will continue oil supplies to NIS after it secured another licence from the U.S. Treasury Department.
Serbia's populist President Aleksandar Vucic said he would announce more fuel and energy savings measures after he meets the country's National Security Council later on Friday.
In December, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) gave NIS until March 24 to negotiate the divestment of the stakes held by Russian firms Gazprom GAZP.MM and Gazprom Neft SIBN.MM, at 44.9% and 11.3% respectively.
On January 19, Hungary's MOL MOLB.BU said it had signed a binding agreement with the Russian companies to buy their stakes in NIS and the United Arab Emirates' ADNOC would be a minority stakeholder.
The Serbian government has a 29.9% stake in NIS, while the remainder belongs to small shareholders and employees.
(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Additonal reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Jamie Freed)