On January 10, 2025, shortly before the end of Joe Biden’s presidential term, the United States imposed sanctions on Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegaz. The measures directly affected Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS), Serbia’s largest oil company, because control of it remains in the hands of structures linked to Gazprom.
A month earlier, on December 13, 2024, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic addressed the nation late at night. He warned at the time that Western sanctions on Serbia’s oil sector would be introduced as early as January 2025.
Under NIS’s current ownership structure, the largest shareholder remains Gazprom Neft with 44.85% of shares. The Serbian state holds the second-largest stake at 29.87%, while the third-largest shareholder is Intelligence, which controls 11.3%.
Gazprom itself is no longer listed among NIS’s direct shareholders. In September 2025, the St. Petersburg-based joint-stock company Intelligence received 11.3% of the Serbian company’s shares after Gazprom transferred the stake to it free of charge.
As a result, the little-known company Intelligence crossed the threshold for significant participation in one of Serbia’s largest energy companies. Against the backdrop of the sanctions, this drew additional attention to NIS’s ties to Russian structures.