Kiril Petkov asked Lukoil to pay taxes here, then rumors spread about fuel shortages

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Not all productions in the Burgas refinery have been restored after the planned repairs.

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3-hour meeting at the insistence of the Vice President and Executive Director of the oil giant Vadim Vorobyov had with the Bulgarian Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Director of the National Revenue Agency

“Lukoil” to be fair to the Bulgarian state, to pay taxes for its business in our country, not in Switzerland. This was the message received by Vadim Vorobyov, vice president and CEO of the Russian company.

During his visit to Sofia, he requested and had a three-hour meeting with Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Asen Vassilev and Director of the National Revenue Agency Rumen Spetsov. Official information about the conversation is still missing from both sides.

However, unofficial sources from the government and Lukoil confirmed the conversation, which was at the insistence of the Russian side. Along with Vorobyov, who is said to be the official Kremlin’s man in the oil giant, four other Russian officials were present. They have asked for guarantees from the Bulgarian side that they will continue their business without pressure, problems and political conditions. The answer was that if all the rules are followed, Lukoil has nothing to worry about.

The categorical position of the state was also discussed, that the vicious practice of large companies – domestic and foreign, to pay a “peace of mind” fee to certain political forces, was categorically stopped.

Hours after Prime Minister Kiril Petkov’s meeting with Lukoil, alarming information emerged that there may be problems with fuel supply at Bulgarian gas stations. According to traders working with the Russian refinery in Burgas, which is owned by Lukoil, it is not operating at full capacity, fuel supplies and orders are on a daily basis and long-term ones are being abandoned. At the moment there were two tankers in Burgas and it was not known when the next ones would arrive, because the weather in Russia has worsened and they cannot travel.

The traders report that Neftochim Burgas is still not working after the end of the planned repairs in recent weeks. Twice the installations could not be switched on due to a technological problem that has not yet been eliminated. As a result, fuel supplies to petrol stations have been disrupted and there may be a shortage for the upcoming holidays.

The refinery confirmed that not all productions have been launched yet, this is happening gradually when the planned repairs are completed.

The problems in the plant coincide with the visit of the vice-president and executive director of the Russian company Vadim Vorobyov, who was in Bulgaria for the celebrations on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Lukoil in our country, prepared in advance.

Weeks ago, the director of the National Revenue Agency, Rumen Specov, said in an interview with the Romanian publication Libertatea that a large oil company in Bulgaria has been reporting only losses for more than 10 years. The company also operated in Romania. The money was moving in such a way that the profits were in Switzerland, elsewhere, in offshore companies, said the head of the National Revenue Agency. He visited Bucharest to offer his Romanian counterparts to work together against tax evasion by large companies doing business in Bulgaria and Romania.

In November, the CPC, on a signal from OMV Bulgaria, filed allegations of an antitrust violation by Lukoil Neftochim Burgas and Lukoil Bulgaria.

Previously, an analysis of the competitive environment in the fuel markets was carried out, which identified problems related to access to tax warehouses. On this occasion, the CPC is conducting a study on the behavior of the Burgas refinery and whether Lukoil Bulgaria is restricting competition.

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