Presidential Advisor on Economic Affairs Radu Burnete says that the situation of Lukoil, which has a refinery and dozens of gas stations in Romania, is in the attention of the authorities, announcing that if it sells its operations in Romania, a Romanian state commission will analyze the transaction and has the right to oppose it, in the event that officials have doubts about the buyer.
“Any transaction of this kind that takes place in Romania is analyzed and authorized by a commission, CEISD (n.r. – Commission for the Examination of Foreign Direct Investments). So whatever Lukoil decides to transfer should go through a filter of the Romanian state and which has the right of veto, I don’t know if it has arguments, of course, but it has the right of veto. If we notice that the company in question has ties to the Russian Federation or is under sanctions or we have suspicions that the company in question does not actually want to be an investor and so on and is just a front, then the Romanian state has the right of veto and there will be such an analysis”, Radu Burnete said on Sunday, on Digi 24, according to News.ro.
Regarding the future operation of the Lukoil refinery and the impact of a possible shutdown of its activities on the fuel market in Romania, Radu Burnete states that Lukoil’s activity ensures approximately 25% of the refining capacity, and part of the refined products in Ploiesti are sent to the Republic of Moldova. He explained that during this period, when the Ploiesti refinery operated by Lukoil is stopped for overhaul, the fuel it provides is supplemented by imports and from other supplying companies.
Burnete believes that the possibility of the acquisition of Lukoil’s assets in Romania by the Romanian state “is a hypothesis that cannot be ruled out”, but emphasizes that Lukoil decides to whom it sells the operations.
Regarding the Cyprus company to which Lukoil announced that it could sell its assets in Romania, Burnete said that it is “a company that raises questions”, without making further comments on this subject, explaining that there are other state authorities that say “if these questions are justified”, according to Financialintelligence.
The US Treasury has included the oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil, as well as 34 subsidiaries of these companies, in a new package of US sanctions.
The sanctions involve the freezing of all Rosneft and Lukoil assets in the United States, as well as the prohibition imposed on all US companies from doing business with the two companies.
The oil company Lukoil then announced that it intends to sell its assets abroad due to the sanctions. In October, Lukoil said that it had accepted the offer of Gunvor – registered in Cyprus and with operational headquarters in Geneva – to buy its assets abroad. Gunvor announced on Thursday that it had withdrawn its proposal to buy the foreign assets of Russian energy company Lukoil after the US Treasury called it a “puppet” of Russia and signaled that Washington was opposed to the transaction
Economy Minister Radu Miruță said on Monday about the US sanctions applied to Lukoil that the authorities are concerned about what is happening to the production area that exists on Romanian territory, because there are some debts of these companies that, if they leave, the Romanian state must ensure that they will not remain history.
“The United States’ decision regarding these sanctions on an international level is not a decision that is related to the decision of the Romanian Government. Regarding these sanctions that have been applied to these companies, we are concerned to see what happens to the production area that exists on Romanian territory. I know that there are some debts of these companies that, if they leave, the Romanian state must ensure that these debts will not remain history and we will be left with a loss again,” said the Minister of Economy, regarding the sanctions applied to the Lukoil company.
Politico commented that Washington’s decision to include Lukoil and Rosneft on the sanctions blacklist has thrown the EU countries where the two largest Russian oil companies are present into chaos, as they try to prevent the interruption of fuel supplies before the sanctions come into force on November 21. Romania and Bulgaria are in a race against time to prevent the closure of their critical oil refineries owned by Lukoil before U.S. sanctions against the Russian owners take effect later this month. One option Bucharest is considering is to request a waiver to extend the sanctions, Politico reports.