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US sanctions hit Russian-owned Serbian oil firm NIS on

October 9

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NIS unable to receive 1 million barrel crude cargo from

Croatia

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Serbia's only oil refinery faces closure without fresh

supplies

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Serbian fuel stocks full, but will only cover to year end

By Robert Harvey, Ivana Sekularac and Aleksandar Vasovic

LONDON/BELGRADE, Oct 24 (Reuters) - U.S. sanctions on

Russian-owned NIS have prevented the Serbian oil group from

receiving a crude cargo that could have bought time for Serbia's

sole refinery, which faces closure without new supplies, sources

with knowledge of the matter said.

The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the

sensitivity of the situation, told Reuters that Serbia has just

days before the NIS oil refinery at Pancevo will be

forced to stop processing crude.

NIS did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

Serbia's President Aleksandar Vucic warned on October 9 that

without deliveries, the refinery, which supplies most of the

country's oil products, including gasoline and jet fuel, would

struggle to operate beyond November 1.

However, Vucic said that fuel storages are full and existing

stocks of oil products should keep Serbia supplied until year

end. "There will be no shortages of crude oil, its derivatives

and no energy crisis," he told Serbs last week.

Russia and Serbia are still working to find a solution that

would lift the U.S. sanctions, announced in January to target

NIS' majority Russian ownership, which came into effect on

October 9 after a final waiver expired.

Vucic is facing a wave of anti-government demonstrations and

may now have to try to secure extra barges of emergency oil when

cold winter weather hits the Balkan country.

US SANCTIONS DISRUPT CARGO

The Maran Helios tanker carrying 1 million barrels of Kazakh

KEBCO crude bound for NIS in Serbia arrived at Croatia's Omisalj

on October 9, data from analytics group Kpler shows.

But the fuel did not then make it to Serbia, a source close

to the matter said.

Croatian pipeline operator Janaf, which had been

given an extension to continue transporting oil to Serbia until

October 15, said in a statement this week that it had delivered

everything in its system owned by NIS on October 8.

Janaf said it had no further oil due for delivery to Serbia

after this date, suggesting it had not taken receipt of the

Kazakh KEBCO crude cargo which NIS had bought.

Reuters could not determine if the cargo will be stored at

Omisalj or resold to a different buyer, after it finally

discharged on Tuesday after hovering off the port for about two

weeks, Kpler data showed.

SERBIA FACES FUEL CRUNCH

The crude which NIS was due to have received would have been

enough to run the Pancevo refinery for around 10 days, according

to Reuters calculations.

While two sources told Reuters that Serbia's fuel stocks

are almost full, the country will become increasingly reliant on

imports as they start to run down.

"For me it's not even a question. The refinery must work,

and petrol stations must stay operational," Nadezda Kokotovic,

former head of NIS' EU liaison office, told Reuters.