Russian side in NIS talks proposes inclusion of US crude in company's oil purchases

BELGRADE - The Russian side in talks on US sanctions on Serbia's Russian-majority owned oil firm NIS, delayed until October 8, has proposed the inclusion of US crude in the company's oil purchases as one of the potential solutions to the issue of sanctions, Tanjug learns.

If the US accepts the proposal, this would mean NIS would be procuring substantial quantities of US crude oil via the JANAF pipeline and mixing it with other oil as part of the company's crude oil basket.

A full transition to processing exclusively US oil to enable NIS to operate without sanctions is unrealistic as the NIS refinery is not technologically configured for that.

According to unofficial sources, under one of the Russian proposals, a US company would acquire an 11.3 pct stake in NIS recently transferred by Russia's Gazprom neft to its daughter company Intelligence.

On September 30, the US Department of the Treasury issued a new special license to NIS delaying full implementation of US sanctions and enabling the firm to operate without obstructions until no later than October 8, NIS announced on Wednesday.