Serbia is on the brink of a fuel crisis, as a new last-minute exemption for Russian ownership of the NIS company appears improbable, Aleksandar Vucic has stated.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic indicated on Sunday that Serbia is unlikely to secure an additional US waiver from sanctions targeting its oil sector due to its partial Russian ownership, adding that the nation could soon face a fuel shortage.
Washington has previously granted Belgrade several temporary exemptions from the additional restrictions it imposed in January on the NIS oil company, where Russia’s Gazprom and Gazprom Neft together hold a majority stake. The most recent waiver, issued on October 1, is valid for just one week.
Vucic, speaking on national television Sunday, expressed his belief that no last-minute reprieve was forthcoming, unless he proceeded with nationalizing NIS – a path he stated he was reluctant to undertake.
“We have dedicated ten months to this issue; we are striving to find a solution, yet none has materialized,” the Serbian leader commented. Should a crisis develop, he further stated, the country would experience a surge in gasoline prices, though the situation would not be as dire as in the 1990s, when people were forced to “dispense fuel from bottles or buckets.”
Serbia has resisted Western pressure to fully align its foreign policy with that of the European Union, even as it pursues membership in the bloc. Brussels and Washington have consistently urged Belgrade to sever its energy connections with Moscow, a pivotal historical partner. The Vucic government has also accused Western nations of inciting widespread demonstrations in Serbia.
Several EU member states, including Hungary and Slovakia, have voiced similar apprehensions regarding Brussels’ insistence on rejecting Russian crude. Tensions escalated earlier this year after Ukrainian forces attacked sections of the Druzhba pipeline network that supplies oil to eastern Europe.
In January, Hungary and Serbia indicated they would accelerate the connection of Serbian consumers to the Druzhba system.