Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced that the NIS oil company can only operate for 4 more days before it completely stops, RTS reported, BTA reported.
Vucic made an extraordinary statement to the public and announced that the country's only refinery, located in Pančevo, near the Serbian capital Belgrade, is operating at a low level of operation.
„It has not yet stopped, it is operating in the so-called "quiet mode", but we still have four days until the refinery is completely closed, unless the license is approved by the US government," Vucic said.
"Our country is in a very difficult situation," he added, explaining that there is a risk of secondary sanctions.
„We still have today and tomorrow to try to get an operating license. Whether we get it depends on the Americans," said the Serbian head of state, adding that "so far we have done everything that our Russian friends asked for."
"NIS has already started to exhaust its operational reserves. "If there is no oil inflow, that is, if we do not receive a license, NIS will have reserves of 55,000 tons of diesel and 50,000 tons of gasoline," Vucic revealed.
According to estimates, the reserves will reach December 28, he said.
US sanctions against the Serbian oil company NIS came into effect on October 9, after being postponed 8 times.
In early January, the US announced that due to the war in Ukraine and the "secondary risk" it would impose sanctions on the only oil company in Serbia, NIS, which is majority owned by the Russian oil giant "Gazprom". Washington demanded the complete withdrawal of Russian capital from the company, but the Russian side announced only a few days ago that it was ready to sell its stake.
“When the sanctions were already announced and the Americans were postponing them month after month, we accepted every Russian offer and did not want to change the terms of business because we did not want to spoil relations“, said Vucic.
The Serbian president also said that the ownership of NIS had changed three times this year (in February, May and September) because the Russians wanted to adapt their activities to the sanctions.
The Serbian state owns 29.9 percent of NIS shares, while the main owner remains “Gazprom Neft“ with 44.9 percent. At the end of September, the St. Petersburg-based company “Intelligence“ (Intelligence), affiliated with „Gazprom“, acquired an 11.3 percent stake in the parent company „Gazprom“.
The refinery in Pancevo has an annual capacity of 4.8 million tons and covers most of the country's needs.