Vucic: US official confirmed to me he will sanction Serbian oil industry

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Saturday that U.S. Undersecretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and Environment Jose Fernandez confirmed that the United States will impose sanctions against Serbia's Oil Industry (NIS).

"They will impose sanctions, not just financial, but full sanctions on NIS company. These will not be sanctions against companies that are Russian owned or financed by Russian banks, but will be direct sanctions against our company NIS," Vucic told the meeting of the Serbian government.

The Serbian president met during the day with U.S. Ambassador to Serbia Christopher Hill, and among other things said to have discussed NIS and eventual sanctions.

According to Vucic, Washington will give Serbia 30 days to "review the situation and take action, and within 60 days it will be all done."

He again proposed to the Serbian government to form two teams, in coordination with the prime minister, to talk with the U.S. and Russian sides.

Vucic mentioned that Serbia has good ties with people in the new administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, but also intends to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the second part of January.

Vucic also said on December 13 that the U.S. would impose sanctions on NIS within days because the company, which was once a state-owned company, is now in Russian hands.

Ten days later, U.S. Ambassador to Belgrade Hill said there was "no information" that sanctions would be imposed on NIS.

Hill told Serbian Public Radio Television (RTS) that "there are concerns" about whether NIS in Russian hands is somehow helping to finance Moscow's war in Ukraine, and that these issues should be carefully analyzed.

Since 2008, NIS has been owned by Russia's state-owned gazprom neft and its parent company, Gazprom.

The European Union and the United States blacklisted Gazprom Neft in 2014 after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula.

Gazprom is not on the West's sanctions list.

Despite efforts to diversify sources of funerization — after the war in Ukraine — Serbia continues to depend largely on Russian energy sources, and this dependence has been one of Belgrade's main arguments not to impose sanctions on Moscow, despite Western insistence.