Officials said that the preventive steps are in response to incidents at the company’s sites in several European countries. Bulgarian authorities announced that they are providing additional security for facilities of strategic importance belonging to the Russian oil giant Lukoil, including the Burgas refinery and oil depots across the country.
“Additional measures have been implemented to ensure security, including by water and air, in the vicinity of Lukoil’s facilities, which are elements of Bulgaria’s critical infrastructure,” the government said in a statement.
Officials specified that these are preventive steps in response to the recent US decision to impose sanctions on Lukoil, as well as in the context of incidents at the company’s sites in several European countries.
Lukoil’s Petrotel refinery in Ploiești, with 2.4 million tons annual capacity, was rocked by an explosion on 20 October in its wastewater unit during maintenance, injuring one worker and halting operations indefinitely. Hungary’s MOL Danube Refinery in Százhalombatta – Europe’s most advanced, processing Russian Druzhba crude for Budapest and Slovakia – erupted in flames hours after Romania’s blast. The incidents prompted speculation about possible sabotage, though no official conclusions have been made public. The Bulgarian army has also deployed an anti-drone system near Lukoil’s Burgas refinery, the largest in Southeastern Europe, which processes over seven million tonnes of crude oil annually.
“Teams from the Military Police are on standby and ready to assist the Interior Ministry in securing strategic sites if necessary,” the government added.
Meanwhile, the Bulgarian news outlet Mediapool reported that counterintelligence officers have begun inspections at Lukoil’s Burgas refinery and at the company’s business offices in Sofia.
According to the report, the inspections started on 7 November, and additional security has been deployed around the company’s offices in the capital.
Mediapool cited government sources as saying that neither Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov nor any of the relevant ministers had been informed about the checks. The State Agency for National Security (DANS), which reports directly to the government, recently received special powers to assess whether a potential buyer of Lukoil’s Bulgarian business could pose a threat to national security.
Late last week, the Bulgarian parliament approved fast-track legislative changes allowing the government to appoint its own administrator to manage Lukoil’s operations and even sell the business if necessary, without facing legal liability.
On 30 October, the Swiss-based company Gunvor – founded by Russian oligarch Gennady Timchenko and his Swedish partner, announced that it had made an offer to acquire LUKOIL International GmbH, through which the Russian oil giant manages its overseas assets, including Litasco, the owner of Neftochim Burgas.
A week later, the US Department of the Treasury declared Gunvor to be a “Kremlin proxy,” effectively collapsing the deal. Under the new US sanctions, the Burgas refinery and other Lukoil subsidiaries fall under restrictions effective from 21 November, prohibiting US persons or financial institutions from making payments or processing transactions related to the blocked companies and any entities in which they hold 50% or greater ownership.
Even though Lukoil has not been sanctioned by the EU while the US measures have no legal force in Europe, the company may nevertheless face paralysis, as banks are unlikely to risk maintaining operations with a US-sanctioned entity and expose themselves to potential secondary sanctions.
At the end of 2023, Lukoil announced plans to sell its Bulgarian assets, having attracted interest from Hungary’s MOL, Kazakhstan’s KazMunayGas, and an Azerbaijani-Turkish consortium. However, nearly a year and a half later, no deal has been reached.