The government of Serbia has sent a letter to the office of US President Donald Trump, expressing support for the Oil Industry of Serbia’s (NIS) request to delay the enforcement of US sanctions on the company due to its predominantly Russian ownership.

During a session led today by Serbian Minister of Mining and Energy Dubravka Đedović Handanović, the Serbian Government Working Group for Monitoring the Activities of the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) decided to back NIS’s appeal for an additional postponement of the sanctions, according to reports from RTS.

NIS was placed on the OFAC blacklist on January 10 as part of new sanctions targeting the Russian oil sector.

The sanctions against NIS were initially scheduled to take effect on February 27; however, the US postponed their implementation until March 29 at 6 a.m. Central European Time.

On March 19, Dušan Bajatović, CEO of Srbijagas, indicated that legal representatives had approached OFAC to request a further extension of the sanctions against NIS, noting that such an extension might be possible on the condition that Serbia devises a plan regarding ownership relations in the company within the next month, in collaboration with the US and Russia.

The Russian state-owned company Gazpromneft holds a 44.85% stake in NIS, while its parent company Gazprom owns 11.30%. The Serbian state holds 29.87%, with the remainder distributed among minor shareholders.

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