OREANDA-NEWS The coalition government of Bulgaria agreed on March 1 to terminate existing benefits for the Lukoil Neftochim refinery in the city of Burgas, according to the chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee of the Cabinet of Ministers Yordan Tsonev.

"The coalition government - GERB-SDS (Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria and Union of Democratic Forces parties) and PP-DB (We Continue Changes and Democratic Bulgaria parties) agreed to terminate Bulgarian benefits for the EU ban on the export of Russian oil products from March 1, 2024," - Tsonev told reporters on Thursday, his words are transmitted by the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency (BTA).

Tsonev added that the bill requires the national customs agency to conduct an inspection by December 31 to identify the amount of petroleum products in the warehouses of Neftochim. According to him, they will have to be exported so that they do not occupy warehouses.

In November, the People's Assembly (Parliament) Bulgaria did not support the bill according to which the Lukoil Neftochim refinery in Burgas was supposed to stop refining Russian oil within three days. The parliament, on the other hand, established that from January 1, 2024, the company in Burgas will be banned from exporting petroleum products, and from March it will be banned from refining Russian oil.

In 2022, EU leaders reached an agreement to impose a partial oil embargo on Russia. At the same time, Bulgaria was then allowed, as an exception, to process Russian oil delivered by sea until the end of 2024.
Earlier, Lukoil announced that it would review its strategy regarding assets in Bulgaria, including analyzing the possibility of selling the business in the country.