Romania and Bulgaria are scrambling to stop the shutdown of critical Russian oil refineries before U.S. sanctions come in later this month.
Washington’s decision to sanction Lukoil and Rosneft and their subsidiaries has hit EU members where Russia’s two largest oil companies are present as they race against time to avert fuel cutoffs ahead of Nov. 21, Politico reported.
Bulgarian lawmakers on Friday passed a bill that would allow the government to appoint a manager of the country’s sprawling Lukoil-owned Burgas refinery, granting them sweeping powers to take operational control of the facility, approve its sale and nationalize it if necessary.
Sofia is also mulling asking for a sanctions exemption.
Romania’s Lukoil’ Petrotel refinery has not made a decision by the government is considering asking for an “extension” as it drafts its own response, Politico reported. speak freely. Nationalization is seen as a “last option,” the person told the publication.
Romanian Energy Minister Bogdan-Gruia Ivan said Bucharest was “prepared” for any scenario. The government aims to preserve “the economic activity of Romania, but also o stop financing the Russian Federation,” he added.
The European Commission has not commented.
The new measures also impact other EU countries. Germany has won a six-month reprieve for its Rosneft-owned Schwedt refinery, under government control since 2022.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Friday traveled to Washington and managed to secure a one-year waiver on Russian pipeline oil from Donald Trump, Universul.net reported.
In Bulgaria, the Russian-owned refinery provides up to 80 percent of the country’s fuel needs, it would leave Sofia without supplies “by the end of the year,” said Martin Vladimirov, a senior analyst at the Center for the Study of Democracy think tank.
Romania’s facility, meanwhile, supplies around “20 percent” of the country’s fuel, according to Ana Otilia Nuțu, an energy analyst at the Expert Forum think tank. A shutdown would therefore prompt “a few months” of mild price increases, she said, as the country races to find replacement imports.
A shutdown could hit exports to neighboring Moldova, she added. And “if Moldova gets hit really bad, then it’s going to be another … huge PR opportunity for Russia,” Nuțu told POLITICO.
