Bulgaria to end Russian oil imports from March as Lukoil considers refinery sale

Lukoil PJSC’s refinery in Bulgaria — the biggest in Southeast Europe — is facing a tighter deadline to switch to alternative fuel sources after lawmakers backed a ban on Russian oil imports from March.

Parliament approved a measure Monday that ends the country’s exemption from European Union sanctions imposed on Moscow after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Under the new deadline, Bulgaria — one of the few countries that was exempt from an EU-wide ban on Russian crude imports until the end of 2024 — will end imports of Russian oil from March on the grounds that the exemption might be used to bypass sanctions.

The move is the latest twist in the Balkan country’s increasingly tense relations with Russian energy companies, after years of almost complete dependence. Lukoil said earlier this month it is considering selling its Bulgarian business, which includes the Neftohim refinery on the Black Sea coast, 9 oil depots and 220 gas stations, due to the adoption of “discriminatory laws and other unfair, biased political decisions toward the refinery.”

In September, lawmakers trimmed the imports exemption by three months, though Moscow-based Lukoil negotiated a schedule to gradually switch to using non-Russian energy sources for its Neftohim refinery after it lost a lease contract for its port in Bulgaria. In October, Bulgaria imposed a tax on the transit of Russian pipeline gas through its territory, sparking price and supply concerns across the region. The tax was revoked Monday.

The legal amendments still leave a door for Lukoil to add hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues from its Bulgarian business despite the end of imports. Lawmakers restricted the exports of all refinery products deriving from Russian crude, starting from January, but allowed an exception for low-octane fuels produced with the oil that has been imported until that date. Shipments of Russian crude to Bulgaria from its Black Sea port of Novorossiysk surged to about 140,000 barrels a day in August and September, more than doubling from the levels seen in April and May.

For years, Bulgaria — a country with close historic and economic ties with Moscow — relied almost entirely on Russia for its natural gas supplies, until it was cut off in the wake of the war in Ukraine for refusing to meet the Kremlin’s demand that it pay for supplies in rubles. Lukoil remains the major supplier to local fuel retailers, as well as the owner of the main infrastructure transporting oil through the Balkan country. 

Any deal for the potential sale of the refinery will have to pass parliamentary approval, Kiril Petkov, the leader of one of the ruling parties in Bulgaria, said last week.