BELGRADE – On 16 November, The Government of Serbia held an extraordinary session on the Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS), attended by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, who said that a decision on NIS must be made next week, stressing that he was not in favour of the nationalization of the company.
A day before, Energy Minister Dubravka Đedović Handanović stated Serbia “secured a three-month licence from the US to try to find a buyer of NIS, which is under sanctions that threaten fuel supplies ahead of winter”.
The ownership of NIS has been changed several times, but it is still majority in the hands of Russian companies. The USA placed the company on the sanctions list due to the so-called “secondary risk”, i.e. majority Russian ownership.
The sanctions, which took into effect on 9 October 2025, are aimed, among other things, at preventing the financing of the war in Ukraine, through money coming from Russian energy companies.
Aleksandar Vučić said that the decision on NIS had to be made in the next seven days, reiterating that “he does not want to steal property from anyone” and that he “is ready to offer a special solution”, which had agreed with the Governor of the National Bank of Serbia Jorgovanka Tabakovic and the responsible ministers, FoNet reported.
“The condition is that the Asian and European partners accept the talks on the ownership, I hope that they will do it… We will accept to sign a letter that the Russians and their Asian and European partners will send to the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)”, he remarked at a session of the Serbian Government, underlining that “Serbia is ready to offer a better price for NIS”.
Vučić claimed that if there were no other solution, Serbia would find the money, it would talk to the Europeans, and “launch a special operation we have discussed with Jorgovanka Tabaković”.
“We will inform the citizens about everything, because I want to avoid the confiscation of NIS…. We do not want to take anything away from anyone”, he said.
According to Vučić, “Serbia risks all the time, because of its relations with Russia – not only NIS, but also the banks are at stake”.
“In my conversations with the Americans I begged them for a seven-day extension for banks and the financial system, so that they would not be brought under sanctions… We must make a final decision by next week”, he remarked.
In addition, he claimed that without a supply of oil, Serbia would be in complete collapse by 13 February 2026, but that “citizens do not have to worry for another 30 days”.
“We have suffered like grass in a clash of elephants, and there is no whining or crying over our fate”, Vučić said, speaking about NIS.
