May 18 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's finance ministry said that it is proposing the establishment of a state-owned company that would manage the warehousing and replenishment of the country's reserves of oil products and would run a network of filling stations across the country.
The new structure that will perform all the functions of the government's State Reserve and Wartime Stocks agency will help optimise the management of the mandatory oil and oil product reserves of the state and will ensure they are sustainably maintained in line with the EU requirements, the finance ministry said in a statement on Friday.
In an attempt to ensure the maximum level of competitiveness on the market, the state-owned oil company will operate fuel warehouses across the country where it will store fuels of other companies as well. The future state-owned company would build a network of filling stations across the country within a year in order to boost competition on the local market.
The proposal was unveiled less than two weeks after Bulat Subaev, director general of Lukoil Bulgaria, the operator of the Burgas-Sofia oil product pipeline, said that the company may suspend operations due to legislative changes requiring it to split its single tax warehouse into separate regional units.
Amendments to the Excise Duties and Tax Warehouses Act, proposed by the government on May 5 as part of a bill for changing the Health Act in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, oblige operators of oil product pipelines located on the territory of more than one regional customs office to apply for separate licences with each one of these regional offices within a month after the adoption of the act. The parliament adopted the changes on second and final reading on May 12.
The Bulgarian Petroleum and Gas Association on May 7 urged the government to withdraw the bill, stating that the changes were not discussed with representatives of the sector and would require significant investments by the companies in times when their revenues are rapidly declining.