US gives Serbian oil company last-minute sanctions reprieve, says President Vucic

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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 SIBN.MM 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 GAZP.MM.

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.