According to head of Bulgaria’s Customs Agency Pavel Gerensky, 50 % of crude oil processed in Lukoil’s Neftochim refinery in Burgas during 2021 was not Russian in origin. So far in 2022, the share of Russian crude oil amounted to 88 %.
Chairman of the Parliamentary Energy Committee Delyan Dobrev said that arguments that the refinery cannot work with oil other than Russian are completely superfluous. He believes that the reason the refinery is working almost entirely with Russian oil this year is that Russian oil has fallen in price by 30-40 % since the start of the war in Ukraine.
The fact that last year this refinery worked only with 50 % Russian oil means that it is possible that next year it will work with 50 % Russian oil, which will remain for the share of the domestic market, because it is about 50%, Dobrev pointed out. That is why he rejects the argument that the refinery may stop working because the export of fuels from Russian oil will be limited. He believes that the only thing that will happen is that the excess profits will be smaller because 50 % of the fuel will be at 30-40 % higher price.
Caretaker Deputy Minister of Finance Lyudmila Petkova warned that the refinery would stop working if it was banned from exporting the residual products processed from Russian oil because it had nowhere to store them.
After the discussion, the Parliamentary Energy Committee did not adopt a draft decision on the application of the derogation from 5 December to reduce fuel prices on the domestic market.
According to the draft decision, a traceability regime should be introduced for fuels and petroleum products produced in Bulgaria from Russian crude oil. The traceability regime should ensure the implementation of the derogation granted to Bulgaria by the European Council to allow fuels and petroleum products produced from Russian crude oil to be sold only on the Bulgarian market.
