BELGRADE — The United States slapped sanctions on Serbia’s largest oil and gas distributor Thursday over its ties to the Russian firm Gazprom Neft.

“This is bad news for our country,” Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said in an extraordinary address to the nation on Thursday, citing “immense economic and political consequences.”

Vučić said he refused a U.S. request to nationalize the company, the Petroleum Industry of Serbia (NIS), which is majority owned by Gazprom Neft but in which the Serbian government remains a major shareholder.

“The U.S. delayed the sanctions eight times, and they would extend the waiver further if I agreed to plundering, if we launched a nationalization procedure,” Vučić said. “I am not a thief.”

Vučić insisted that the country has diesel, gasoline and oil reserves to last until Nov. 1. He said that air travel to and from Serbia, in particular traffic headed toward the EU, would not be affected.

“Not a single plane wanted to load NIS certified oil. No one wants to fall under U.S. sanctions and not fly in the skies of Europe and the U.S.,” he said. “We managed to resolve it with a Kuwaiti-British company for the time being.” 

Though the move is not expected to cause immediate shortages, NIS warned its customers that purchases made at its gas stations using international banking services such as Mastercard, Visa and American Express could fail to go through, urging citizens not to stockpile gas or panic buy. 

“NIS has secured sufficient stocks of oil for processing at this time, while gas stations are properly supplied with all types of oil derivatives,” the distributor said in a statement on Thursday. “Payment at gas stations will be possible with the domestic DinaCard, cash” and other local payment options, it added.

The United States had granted the company a waiver allowing it to import and distribute oil and gas despite sanctions on Russian crude, but the company announced the waiver had been withdrawn on Thursday.

In 2009, Serbia sold a majority share of NIS to Gazprom Neft in a highly-publicized move linking cheap gas, refinery upgrades and Serbia’s entry into Russia’s South Stream pipeline project. The sale was followed by a visit by then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Belgrade.  

NIS operates around 400 stations in Serbia and in the region.

Serbia, which continues to maintain a cozy relationship with the Kremlin, has declined to participate in the EU sanctions against Moscow following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Croatia’s Economy Minister Ante Šušnjar said Thursday that Zagreb is ready to buy a stake in NIS to keep oil flows running smoothly through the Adriatic oil pipeline between the two countries.

“Our hand is outstretched. If that is the solution, we are ready for that option,” Šušnjar told reporters in Zagreb.