Bulgaria's only Russian-owned Lukoil Neftochim Burgas oil refinery near Burgas on the Black Sea coast on March 17, 2022. PHOTO: Nikolay DOYCHINOV / AFP / Profimedia
Bulgaria's parliament on Thursday overrode a presidential veto of a law allowing the government to take control of the Lukoil oil refinery and sell it to protect the asset from impending US sanctions, Reuters reports.
The US and Britain imposed sanctions on Lukoil and Rosneft, Russia's two largest oil companies, last month, putting their operations across Europe at risk.
Then, last week, Bulgarian lawmakers approved changes that give a government-appointed manager the power to oversee the continued operation of Bulgaria's Lukoil refinery after Nov. 21, when U.S. sanctions take effect, and to sell the company if necessary.
Afterwards, President Rumen Radev used his veto on the bill, saying it contained no guarantees against future financial claims against the state.
But parliament rejected his objections on Thursday by 128 votes to 59, Bulgarian news agency BTA reported.
What are Romania and Bulgaria doing in the case of Lukoil. Bulgarian authorities quickly made a decision on the Russian oil giant under US sanctions / Romania's Government postpones
US sanctions have raised concerns about winter fuel supplies in Bulgaria, where Lukoil operates the Burgas refinery (the country's only), hundreds of gas stations, plus fuel depots.
Lukoil has asked Washington for an extension of the sanctions deadline, which bans transactions with the Russian company after November 21, to give it more time to liquidate its commitments and consider offers for its global assets, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.
Before Thursday's decision, Boiko Borisov, Bulgaria's former prime minister and leader of the GERB party, which leads the coalition government, was optimistic that Bulgaria would get an extension next week.
“Together with the government, we are working to make both the people in the refinery and the refinery itself work well,” Borisov said, according to BTA.
What is Romania doing with Lukoil assets?
The Ministry of Energy has already drawn up a draft normative act regarding the assets held in Romania by Lukoil, a company under US sanctions, Bogdan Ivan, the Minister of Energy, announced on Thursday.
He did not want to say what provisions the new normative act contains.
Bogdan Ivan and President Nicușor Dan talked about the possibility of the Romanian state taking control of Lukoil's assets, given that on November 21 the US sanctions come into force, which will lead to the blocking of the Russian group's activity abroad.
It is not clear in what way, if the state will take over the management and/or the shares.
“We have already drafted a normative act to regulate this new situation for the Romanian state and for all the countries that have these implications following the sanctions imposed by the US, in direct connection with those from OFAC, in direct connection with the company as well”, said Bogdan Ivan, when asked by journalists, on Thursday, in the Parliament, about the Lukoil situation.
