Crude deliveries to Serbia’s Pancevo refinery were suspended on 6 November after construction machinery damaged Croatia’s JANAF pipeline during rehabilitation work. JANAF, the pipeline operator, estimated that around 500,000 liters of crude spilled. It stopped transportation through the affected section and began emergency containment and repair work, which is continuing.
The damage occurred on the Sisak-Slavonski Brod section, part of the route used to supply the refinery. NIS, which operates the Pancevo refinery, reported no disruption to fuel supplies at its retail network, which continues to operate normally. NIS is awaiting JANAF’s confirmation of when pipeline deliveries can resume. The route is the refinery’s main oil supply route.
The immediate exposure is in refinery feedstock logistics, rather than retail fuel availability. The effect on refinery operations will depend on the duration of the outage and the timing of repairs on the Croatian section. Even a short interruption requires closer management of inventories and refinery planning, while a longer outage would increase pressure on alternative supply arrangements and working stocks.
