From 1 March, a ban on the import of Russian oil came into force in Bulgaria. The South Slavic country was forced, due to sanctions, to abandon the flow of energy resources from a traditional source, following the rest of Europe. At the same time, the oil refinery in Burgas is still under the control of the Russian company Lukoil and bears the name Lukoil Neftochim Burgas (LNB).
Experts claim that its sale is almost already decided. Among the potential buyers of the plant is the Kazakh national company KazMunayGas (KMG).
According to the publication Rossiyskaya Gazeta, until 2021, about half of the raw materials for the LNB in Burgas consisted of Russian Urals crude oil.
However, on 6 February, the chairman of the energy commission of the Bulgarian parliament, Delyan Dobrev, provided statistics on his Facebook page regarding raw material supplies to the oil refinery in Burgas, in which our country is already listed as the leader:
- Kazakhstan (CPC Blend crude oil) — 48%;
- Iraq (Basran Medium) — 29%;
- Saudi Arabia (Arabian light) — 16%;
- Tunisia (Helm) — 7%.
In December last year, the publication Intelligence Online published an article in which experts suggested that since almost half of the oil supplies come from Kazakhstan, KazMunayGas could become the new buyer of the refinery.
Another reason for KMG's interest in the Burgas plant is said to be that the company already has assets in the Balkans in the form of the company Romeptrol, which is based in Romania.
Despite this, the Azerbaijani national company SOCAR is mentioned as a contender for Lukoil Neftochim Burgas more often than KMG. Since April last year, it has even had its own office in Bulgaria.
Furthermore, the media report that some experts consider the best option for purchasing LNB to be a company from the USA or the EU. In their view, companies from the CIS are too closely linked to Russia, which could allow the Russian Federation to retain its influence over the Bulgarian plant.
At the same time, Russian experts note that LNB could be of interest to the Polish oil refining company Orlen, which is currently expanding into the European market.