Micovic: Serbia cannot rely on oil product imports, the state should have already prepared for the takeover of NIS

The Secretary General of the Association of Oil Companies of Serbia, Tomislav Micovic, assessed that Serbia could not ensure market supply in the long term by importing oil products and relying on existing stocks alone.

He stated on Nova S television that Serbia had to do everything to get the Pancevo Refinery, owned by Naftna industrija Srbije (NIS), to start operating again and that there is “no choice.”

- We cannot count on relying on the Danube and the railway for imports and supplies, and expect the state not to feel it - that is impossible. Increased imports can extend the life of stocks, which we are already doing. Imports have jumped from some (around) 35,000 tons to 100,000 tons of diesel per month, which means that we still have room - Micovic stated.

He added that by the end of January, they would certainly have fuel to supply everyone, but that relying on imports had now made the domestic market less resilient to potential external shocks, such as the fire at the MOL refinery in Hungary or Bulgaria’s ban on the export of derivatives due to US sanctions there.

He also assesses that the Serbian takeover of NIS, if the Russian owners do not do so voluntarily through sale or transfer, is still the best option for solving problems in the domestic energy sector.

- NIS is not able to supply the markets, and it accounted for 80 percent of retail sales, which is reason enough for the state to react. In Germany, they immediately took over the management of Russian refineries in 2022, after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. But they did this in agreement with Rosneft, those refineries were transferred to them and they are now managed by the German Energy Agency - said Micovic.

Asked how long the German preparations for the takeover of complex petrochemical systems had lasted, he said that it had taken a month, and that Serbia, if it intended to do something similar, “should have advanced by now with preparations for the takeover... strategic issues are not resolved overnight,” Micovic pointed out.

Although fuel will be sufficient at least in the short term, Micovic also stated that NIS, with 327 gas stations out of a total of about 1,500 in Serbia, had had the best territorial distribution of these stations.

- Citizens can arrange thing themselves when it comes to retail (gas stations), travel a little longer, but that could be a problem for the transport sector - said the interviewee of Nova S.