US grants temporary licence to Russian-controlled Serbian oil firm NIS: Serbian minister

The United States has granted a temporary licence to NIS, a majority-Russian owned Serbian oil company caught up in US sanctions against Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, a Serbian minister said on Wednesday.

Washington's sanctions on the Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS), part of its crackdown on Russia's energy sector, forced Serbia's sole oil refinery, which supplies around 80 percent of the Serbian market, to shut down in early December.

"NIS has obtained a license from US OFAC (the Office of Foreign Assets Control) allowing it to continue operations until January 23. This means that the Pancevo refinery will be able to resume operations after 36 days," Serbian Energy Minister Dubravka Djedovic Handanovic said on Instagram.