Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov confirmed on Thursday that there is interest in the sale of Lukoil Neftochim Burgas, which is the largest refinery in the Balkans and is managed by the Russian company Lukoil through its company in Switzerland – Litasco.
Lukoil Neftochim Burgas is a company located in an EU member state, which is owned by Litasco SA, registered in Switzerland, a non-state-owned publicly listed company of Lukoil.
“I said there is interest, and indeed there is interest. I myself have seen that there is interest in conversations with various companies. Litasco headquarters say that there are no negotiations (for sale). These are two different stages, said Denkov.
“As they have explained, in order for negotiations to take place, a formal letter must be sent, followed by an official letter to enter into a procedure. Negotiations are a relatively difficult procedure, which probably has not started yet, but that there is interest,” Denkov said.
The Bulgarian government owns a golden share in Lukoil Neftochim Bulgaria, which gives the state the right to call for a general meeting of shareholders on all key issues for the company. Bulgarian legislation gives the state the right to take control of the refinery in the event of a threat to national security.
On Wednesday, the majority owner of Lukoil Neftochim Burgas denied that it had received an offer to sell the Burgas refinery, nor that it was in negotiations for a sale. Litasco SA’s position was first sent to Bloomberg and then confirmed to Euractiv.
A day ago, Finance Minister Asen Vassilev told the Financial Times that government pressure on Russian companies forced Lukoil to look for a way to sell the largest refinery in south-east Europe.
Part of the state pressure on the Russian company was the new taxes imposed on the import and transit of Russian gas in Bulgaria, which the refinery uses as its main fuel.
Meanwhile, The Bulgarian government says it has nothing to do with this process, but is following it closely.
The sale of Lukoil Neftochim Burgas has been talked about very intensively since the election of the government with the mandate of the pro-European coalition We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria and supported by GERB and DPS parties.
According to Euractiv’s unofficial information, the best chance of reaching a deal is with a large American shareholder because the Bulgarian players are too small for such a large refinery. Although there is interest, and the European oil giants would not want to get involved in such a deal with Russian assets.
At the same time, however, Lukoil does not publicly demonstrate its intention to leave the Bulgarian market and declares that it is working on giving up Russian oil by the end of 2024.
One of the major problems is how the refinery will get a reliable supply of crude oil through the straits and how the oil pipeline between Alexandroupolis and Burgas will be built without any concerns that it will serve Russian interests.
Litasco clarified that it had not appointed any public or private entity to look for potential buyers or negotiate a sale on their behalf.
(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)
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Source: euractiv.com
