October 18 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria is aware of expressions of interest in the purchase of Lukoil Neftohim Burgas, part of Russia's Lukoil and operator of the country's sole refinery, but is not involved in the sale process, the Financial Times reported, citing Bulgarian finance minister Assen Vassilev.
The move to sell the facility is a result of Bulgaria's stepped-up pressure on locally operating Russian companies, Vassilev was quoted as saying on Tuesday. The country could reap an economic benefit from the potential change of the refinery's ownership, he added.
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The recently implemented 60% tax on revenue will be reduced to only 15% once Lukoil Neftohim is sold, while a planned upgrade to enable the processing of lighter non-Russian crude is estimated to cost in excess of 500 million euro ($529 million), according to Vassilev.
On Friday, Bulgaria enacted a law which stipulates that the refinery, which currently makes use of an EU exemption so as to process seaborne Russian Urals crude, must switch to only non-Russian crude starting from October 1, 2024.
The law also introduced an excise tax of 20 levs ($10.81/10.22 euro) per MWh on natural gas transiting through Bulgarian territory. Gazprom uses pipelines through Bulgaria to transit gas to Hungary, Serbia and other European countries.
According to Vassilev, the excise tax most likely will not be reflected in gas prices downstream, but will reduce Gazprom profits.
Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjarto, who has denounced the measure, earlier this week received assurances that Russia and Gazprom will supply the contracted gas volumes to Hungary despite transit fee increases in Bulgaria, a Hungarian government spokesman said in a social media post.
($ = 0.9452 euro)
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