Bulgaria Terminates the Lease of the Port Terminal by Russia's Lukoil

Bulgaria's parliament has voted to terminate the concession of the Russian oil company Lukoil to operate the Rosenets oil terminal near the Black Sea port of Burgas. Lawmakers hope that this step will accelerate the country's accession to the Schengen area without EU borders.

Reuters reported this.

The bill, backed by 144 MPs in the 240-seat parliament, stipulates that Lukoil will be allowed to operate the oil terminal after the concession is terminated, but it must pay fees to the Bulgarian government. It also says the concession will end within a week.

Port Rosenets, near Burgas, is the only specialised oil terminal on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. It has been under Lukoil's control since 2011, when the Russian company was awarded a 35-year concession.

The terminal serves Bulgaria's only refinery, Neftochim Burgas, which has the capacity to process 196,000 barrels per day and is also owned by Lukoil. In January, Bulgarian lawmakers passed a decision paving the way for the government to take over the refinery for up to a year.

In their proposal to the parliament, the ruling centre-right GERB party, the We Continue to Change - Democratic Bulgaria (PP-DB) and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms parties said that ending the concession would prevent Russia from using Bulgarian facilities to finance its war in Ukraine.

It would also ensure the implementation of EU sanctions, facilitating Bulgaria's application for Schengen, PP-DB co-chairman Kiril Petkov said ahead of the vote. Bulgaria hopes to be accepted this autumn.

"Our strategic goal is to join Schengen, and this is a big step towards that. It ... also meets ... the EU sanctions against Russia", Petkov said.

Opposition co-chairman Atanas Atanasov was even more direct:

"We have been saying for years that the Bulgarian state should regain control of the port of Rosenets, and now that Russia has declared Bulgaria an enemy country in the war it is waging in Ukraine, we are taking measures to limit Russia's ability to use Bulgarian infrastructure that will supply funds to Russia. This is the main goal of what we are doing because we have data and it is common knowledge that, among other things, because the Bulgarian state does not control this port, smuggling goes through there, meaning that most or some of the oil that is imported is not declared to the Bulgarian state, and the revenues generated by the concessionaires go to support Russia in the war."

In a statement, Lukoil Neftekhim oil refinery said it would seek legal action against the parliamentary decision.

Bulgaria's pro-Russian President Rumen Radev also criticised the move.

"The proposal to terminate the concession... is another hasty and wrong idea of political leaders," he told reporters.

Earlier, The Gaze reported that the WCC-DB coalition has submitted a bill to the country's parliament today that would return the Rosenets port, controlled by the Russian company Lukoil, to Bulgarian management.