Vucic: I expect we will get final 15 days for NIS from Washington

TBILISI - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Tuesday in Tbilisi he expected the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to provide a final, 15-day extension of a deadline for a resolution of the issue of the Serbian oil company NIS.

Vucic said this in response to questions from reporters about the significance of a Shareholders Agreement signed earlier in the day by Serbia and the Hungarian oil firm MOL, which is in talks with Gazprom neft about acquiring a Russian-majority stake in NIS.

Since October 9, 2025, NIS has been under US sanctions due to its Russian-majority ownership.

The deadline for the completion of the talks and an OFAC operating licence issued to NIS both expire on June 16.

"I expect that we will get 15 more days, a final 15-day (deadline) extension from Washington. My estimate, and the information I have received from Washington, is that we will get a 15-day extension. That is a short period of time and I hope the Russian side will accept that agreement," Vucic said.