The Serbian President said Washington had suggested the gradual nationalization of the Serbian oil industry in order to avoid sanctions.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić lamented that Russia had offered Serbia a gas supply contract only until the end of the year, calling the development “disappointing,” as Belgrade had “expected the signing of a long-term agreement since last May.”
Vučić said that Russia was “using gas as leverage.” “The logic is simple,” he said. “If we attempt to nationalize NIS or any other move, they could cut off gas supplies on 31 December. This is a very negative message to us.”
Serbia receives Russian gas via the TurkStream pipeline which runs via Bulgaria under the name Balkan Stream.
The Serbian president recalled that he had met twice this year with Vladimir Putin, in May and September, when “it was verbally agreed that a three-year gas supply agreement would be signed soon.” Despite the assurances, he noted, “Serbia is still waiting.”
The Serbian president called on citizens “not to panic” after the announcement of US sanctions against NIS, emphasizing that “there is no reason for concern, because the state will seek and find a solution, acting with seriousness and responsibility.”
The United States imposed sanctions on Serbia’s Russian-owned oil company NIS on Thursday, prompting neighbouring Croatia to cut crude supplies and raising concerns that the country’s sole refinery may halt operations within weeks.
NIS – in which Gazprom Neft owns a 44.9% stake, Gazprom 11.3% and the Serbian government 29.9% – operates Serbia’s sole refinery, in the town of Pančevo, just outside of Belgrade.
Gazprom Neft transferred a stake of around 5.15% in NIS to Gazprom on 26 February in an attempt to ward off sanctions.
The refinery has an annual capacity of 4.8 million tons and covers most of the Balkan country’s needs, and sanctions could jeopardise its supply of crude via Croatia’s JANAF pipeline.
The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control initially placed sanctions on Russia’s oil sector on 10 January, and gave Gazprom Neft 45 days to exit ownership of NIS. The sanctions’ enforcement has been postponed every month, until they entered into force on 8 October.
Referring to U.S. pressure, Vučić said that Washington had suggested to him that he sign an agreement on the gradual nationalization of the Serbian oil industry in order to avoid sanctions.
“I answered them that this is unacceptable. Serbia is neither a communist nor a fascist country and it is not in the habit of seizing foreign property,” he stressed.
The Serbian president concluded that, despite the pressures, “Serbia will remain a fair and reliable partner both towards the Russian side and towards the international community.”
In comments cited by the newspaper Informer, Vučić said that “Serbia currently has about 340,000 tons of petroleum derivatives, of which 80% is diesel – a significant amount,” adding, however, that “the problem will arise if the Pančevo refinery stops operating.” As he said, this “would create a problem both for workers and for the processing and disposal of derivatives.”
“We approached the Russian side,” he explained, “because we had been asking the Americans for months to extend the sanctions – and in the end we only secured eight months.
Vučić lashed at Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković. Croatia supplies the NIS refinery via the JANAF pipeline, but can no longer do that, because it would also be hit by sanctions.
“When Plenković says we did nothing, I reply that we are not the kind of people who grab whatever they can find”, Vucić said.
He insisted that he does not have “an iota of guilt” for the introduction of US sanctions on NIS, because for months he has been trying to “extract something” and save the jobs of certain directors whom he alleges participated in the protests and blockades.
He said he would present proposals to Gazpromneft Chairman Alexander Dyukov that he said were “favorable for the Russian side,” but expressed doubts about whether Moscow would accept them.