“Kazakhstan’s state-owned oil and gas company KazMunayGas has offered $1 billion to buy Lukoil Neftochim Burgas, the only refinery in Bulgaria currently owned by the Russian company Lukoil.”, — write: epravda.com.ua
Kazakhstan’s state-owned oil and gas company KazMunayGas has offered $1 billion to buy Lukoil Neftochim Burgas, the only refinery in Bulgaria currently owned by the Russian company Lukoil. This was reported by Euractive. The plant in Burgas already receives about 40% of its supplies from KazMunayGas, and this agreement will strengthen the position of the Kazakh company in the European market. KazMunayGas already owns the Romanian oil refinery Rompetrol, which has a network of filling stations in Bulgaria under the Rompetrol brand. If the deal is concluded, the Kazakh company’s European oil refining capacity will more than double.Advertisement: Litasco, the Swiss division of Russian Lukoil, has already accepted binding offers from several potential buyers, including KazMunayGas, Bloomberg reports. Kazakhstan’s state-owned company is discussing financing for a possible deal with Switzerland’s Vitol Group, the world’s largest independent oil and gas trader with significant influence in Kazakhstan. One of Vitol’s subsidiaries has a license to trade electricity and gas in Bulgaria. In December, the Bulgarian government confirmed that the Hungarian oil and gas company MOL is among the contenders for the plant in Burgas. In late December, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán visited Bulgaria, and the deal was reportedly part of official negotiations.Advertisement: Bulgaria will ban Lukoil from refining Russian oil in late 2023, forcing the company to increase its share of Kazakh oil to 40%, the rest will be sourced from the Middle East. According to one of Bloomberg’s sources, KazMunayGas expects the process of selling the Bulgarian unit to last about a month. The condition of the agreement is the transfer of money to the account of Litasco, which owns Lukoil and is not subject to Western sanctions. The company must provide guarantees that the funds will not be transferred to Russia. The proposed sale price of around $1 billion reportedly seems low. KazMunayGas is seeking support for its bid from the Bulgarian government, arguing that the refinery is set to process Russian oil, which is similar in quality to Kazakh oil. “The government is closely monitoring the process, but cannot directly influence the change of ownership, as there is currently only one private owner,” Bulgarian Energy Minister Volodymyr Malinov said in December.