Serbia's Russian owned NIS files request to postpone implementation of US sanctions

BELGRADE, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Serbia's Russian owned oil company NIS NIIS.BEL on Sunday filed a request to postpone implementation of the United States sanctions, the company said on Monday.

The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control initially placed sanctions on Russia's oil sector on January 10, and gave Gazprom Neft 45 days to exit ownership of NIS.

Following a series of waivers since then, on Friday the United States said sanctions would be imposed as of October 1, but then approved another 8-day delay of implementation.

"On September 28, the NIS company submitted a new request to the US Treasury Department for the issuance of a special license, which postpones the full application of sanctions and enables the company's operational activities to be carried out smoothly," NIS said in a statement on its website.

"NIS has also submitted an amendment to the request for removal from the SDN (Specially Designated Nationals) list. It is a long-term and complex process, and the initial request was sent on March 14 of this year," it said.

NIS operates Serbia's only oil refinery and is crucial to its energy security. According to one trader, it supplies around 80% of the country's gasoline and diesel, and 90% or more of jet fuel and heavy fuel oil.

NIS is majority-owned by Russia's Gazprom Neft SIBN.MM and Gazprom GAZP.MM and, as such, is one of Russia's last remaining oil assets in Europe.

The Pancevo facility has an annual capacity of 4.8 million metric tons and covers most of Serbia's needs, and sanctions could jeopardize its supply of crude via Croatia's Janaf JANF.ZA pipeline.