The Bulgarian government has decided to classify two companies within the Lukoil group as assets of strategic importance to national security. The companies in question are Lukoil Aviation Bulgaria and Lukoil Bulgaria Bunker, which supply the country with aviation and marine fuel, according to the publication Novinite.<\/p>\n
The decision was taken by the Council of Ministers at a closed-door meeting. According to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Economy, Investment and Industry Alexander Pulev, this move is part of an anti-crisis plan aimed at maintaining state control over critical operations in the fuel market.<\/p>\n
The government explains that the need for this decision arose after the Constitutional Court ruled that previous legislative changes concerning Lukoil\u2019s operations were unconstitutional. The court\u2019s ruling is expected to come into force in the coming days.<\/p>\n
Pulev warned that without state intervention, control of these companies could revert to their Russian owners and managers. In his view, this would pose serious risks due to international sanctions, including the possible shutdown of the Burgas oil refinery, disruptions to fuel supplies and negative consequences for Bulgarian consumers.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the minister emphasised that Bulgaria would continue to oversee the operations of Lukoil Bulgaria through the mechanism of a special commercial manager, whilst strictly adhering to international sanctions.<\/p>\n
According to Pulev, following the imposition of sanctions, the Burgas Oil Refinery no longer processes Russian crude oil and deals only with suppliers who are not subject to sanctions. Furthermore, Sofia has approached the UK authorities with a request to extend the special licence granting a temporary exemption from the UK sanctions regime. The licence is due to expire on 13 August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":152023,"menu_order":0,"template":"","newscat":[9],"newstag":[],"issues":[],"class_list":["post-152022","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","newscat-novosti"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/152022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"newscat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newscat?post=152022"},{"taxonomy":"newstag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newstag?post=152022"},{"taxonomy":"issues","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ldaily.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issues?post=152022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}