The Minister of Mining and Energy, Zorana Mihajlovic, after the EU's decision on the eighth package of sanctions against Russia, which also applies to Serbia, because it includes the ban on the import of Russian oil through the Adriatic Pipeline (JANAF), stated that it is already known that after On November 1 of this year, Serbia will not be able to be supplied with Russian oil and that Serbian refineries and oil companies will be supplied from the free market after that date.

She said that the market will be supplied and there will be no problem in the delivery of fuel. Mihajlovic did not want to directly comment on the media articles that Croatia, together with some other EU member states, prevented Serbia from being exempted from the ban on oil imports from the Russian Federation in the eighth package of sanctions, the MIA correspondent from Belgrade reported.

- The information that Serbia will not be able to import Russian oil from November 1 is not from yesterday, we suddenly saw it in the media as if it appeared yesterday. Already in May, there was a clear announcement and a clear sign that with this package of sanctions, Serbia will not be able to import Russian oil. Back then, we already said that Serbia imported a little Russian oil, a little non-Russian oil, partly had Serbian oil, about 20 percent, and within those limits there was up to 50, and sometimes 30 percent Russian, it depended on the price of oil, said Mihajlovic.

She added that at the time the war in Ukraine started, Russian oil had a lower price, so the Oil Industry of Serbia (NIS) imported more Russian and less non-Russian oil.

- NIS has been preparing for this for months. Therefore, it will import only non-Russian oil, meaning 80 percent, and 20 percent will be Serbian Velebit oil, which is one of the highest quality. Whether someone prevented it or not, we didn't count on that, but we considered that from the first of November we will not have the opportunity to import Russian oil, and our task was to prepare for that, said Mihajović.

All the crude oil that Serbia imports comes by tanker to Omišalj on Krk and from there through the Adriatic Oil Pipeline (JANAF) it is transported to Serbia to the refinery in Pancevo where it is processed. Until a few months ago, Serbia received almost two-thirds of its oil from Iraq - about 45 percent of the total amount of imports. 10 percent of the oil came from Kazakhstan and about 1 percent from Norway. An average of 16 to 20 percent of Serbia's needs arrived from Russia by tanker. Minister Mihajlovic said in mid-September that Serbia has provided a replacement for Russian oil, which it will not be able to import from November 1 due to the sixth package of EU sanctions against Russia.

She then said that since the beginning of the war, since the end of March, Russian oil has been quite cheap and that NIS has been importing more of it, so that in the structure since the beginning of the year it was 55 percent of Russian oil.

As Euronews Serbia writes, in the sixth package of sanctions there are exceptions, but not for Serbia, but for EU members who are supplied with Russian oil through an oil pipeline. For example, Hungary and Slovakia can continue to be supplied with Russian oil through a pipeline, but soon they will no longer be able to sell the derivatives obtained in this way. Among the exceptions is Bulgaria. The Ministry of Energy of Serbia previously announced that it will work on increasing supplies in order for the country to be more resistant to changes in the market.