BELGRADE, Feb 27 - The United States has suspended

sanctions for 30 days on Serbian oil company NIS, which is

majority-owned by Russian companies and runs the country's only

oil refinery, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Thursday,

citing a U.S. Treasury document.

Vucic posted a photo of the document on his Instagram page.

Reuters was not immediately able to verify it.

"We got 30 additional days for NIS. This is good news for

the citizens of Serbia," Vucic said in his post.

The United States placed sanctions on Russia's oil sector on

January 10, and gave Russian oil company Gazprom Neft

until Thursday morning to exit ownership of NIS.

On Wednesday, Gazprom Neft reduced its majority stake in NIS

by transferring around 5% of its share to its parent company

Gazprom.

A sanctions reprieve would be a relief for Serbia. NIS

supplies about 80% of the domestic retail market with crude oil

and gas derivatives.

If sanctions were imposed, it would be unable to import

crude oil through Croatia's pipeline operator Janaf.

The United States is yet to comment publicly since the

deadline expired. It is not clear if it will accept the stake

swap long term, given that Gazprom Neft is the oil arm of energy

giant Gazprom.

The Serbian government holds a further 29.87% stake with

small shareholders accounting for the remainder.

(Reporting by Ivana Sekularac

Writing by Angeliki Koutantou

Editing by Christina Fincher and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)