Bulgaria to Vote on Ending Russian Crude Imports

Bulgarian lawmakers are set to vote Thursday on ending imports of Russian crude, bringing the country in line with other EU members, which would mean southeastern Europe’s largest refinery would need to source alternative feedstock.

• If Bulgaria votes to ban Russian crude imports, this will force Lukoil PJSC’s refinery - the biggest in southeast Europe - to look for alternative feedstock as the refinery runs almost entirely on Russian crude.
• Lawmakers will vote on curbing the use of Russian oil at Lukoil’s refinery to 80% by the end of this year, and phasing it out completely by next October.
• “The question of moving off Russian oil for the refinery is mainly a logistics question,” Finance Minister Assen Vassilev said in an interview late Wednesday. “In order to move to non-Black Sea oil, the actual storage capacity needs to be increased substantially — maybe doubled — so that the refinery can work 20, 30 days potentially without a tanker coming in.”
• Shipments of Russian Urals crude across the Black Sea to Bulgaria have risen in recent weeks, topping 180kbpd, three times the level seen earlier this year.
• In July, Bulgaria’s parliament voted to terminate Lukoil PJSC’s 35-year lease of a terminal serving the Russian company’s refinery near the Black Sea early, a decision that was based on a pan-European sanction regime, Daniel Lorer, a lawmaker from the ruling coalition, said in the assembly.