site.btaUPDATED Security of Fuel Supplies Guaranteed, Four Companies in Bulgaria to Be Affected by US Sanctions, Energy Minister Says
The security of fuel supplies for household consumers is guaranteed, four companies in Bulgaria will be affected by the US sanctions, Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov said at the National Assembly on Wednesday.
In tax warehouses Bulgaria has petrol for nearly six months, diesel for four months, and aviation fuel for two months, Stankov announced from the parliamentary rostrum. "If, as of today, there is no import of fuel into the country, in the worst-case scenario, there is six months’ worth of petrol, four months of diesel and two months worth of kerosene," Stankov said. He added that propane-butane is also not a problem and is imported in huge quantities to this day.
The fuels in tax warehouses are intended only for Bulgarian citizens, Stankov said, they cannot be exported. The quantities of fuel available in the nation’s strategic fuel stocks, on the territory of Bulgaria, are sufficient to supply Bulgarian citizens and businesses for a long period of time, Stankov added.
About 50,000 tons of fuel, which would last for four to five days, are outside the country, the rest is crude oil. “The security of supplies for household consumers is guaranteed with the quantities that I presented to you,” Stankov stated.
According to him, some of the MPs and political analysts are trying to instil fear in Bulgarian citizens, which will not help. "The actions that the government is taking are the only possible and most adequate to guarantee the country's energy security," he said.
"The President, through social media, is trying to give advice to the [US Department of the Treasury's] Office of Foreign Assets Control, directing his talk to the government on Facebook," Stankov said regarding the statement made by Rumen Radev on social media. "The excuses of the government that they are waiting for the promulgation of the amendments they adopted to the Act on Administrative Regulation of Economic Activities Associated with Oil and Petroleum Products in order to protect the public interest by appointing a special commercial administrator are untenable," Radev wrote in a post earlier on Wednesday.
"The most important thing is for all Bulgarian institutions, the National Assembly, the government and the presidency, to unite in a common goal: to obtain a derogation in the shortest possible time," Stankov said. "My appeal has to do with the fact that in reality all actions at the moment should be dictated by the Constitution, if you will, by the President’s personal principles, but this should happen within a time frame that would not endanger the country’s energy security," he added.
US sanctions will have a direct impact on four companies in Bulgaria. Lukoil Neftochim Burgas, Lukoil Bulgaria, Lukoil Aviation Bulgaria and Lukoil Bulgaria Bunker, will be affected by the suspension of banking services after November 21, Stankov said.
"The special administrator, introduced at the time of the Denkov government, was mainly aimed at guaranteeing the operation of the refinery, in the event of management blocking it from processing non-Russian oil," Stankov explained. “Now we are in a fundamentally different situation. The sanctions have one main point, after November 21, financial institutions will no longer serve subsidiaries related to the sanctioned companies,” he said.
"In order to obtain a derogation, we have identified two points," Stankov said. Currently, the function of the special commercial administrator to exercise control not over the production process, but over payments from subsidiaries, does not exist by law. Secondly, the administrator must be able to withhold orders of the sanctioned parent company. "The special commercial administrator proposed by the National Assembly, provides the state the opportunity for 24/7 monitoring, which would prevent funds from subsidiaries from being directed to the sanctioned companies," Stankov said.
On October 27, a derogation was requested, he added. Diplomacy prefers silence, Stankov said on the negotiations with the US. Our partners are satisfied that "Bulgaria is best prepared in its analyses, the way it submits its requests, and the actions taken," he added.
Last week, in two readings held during a single sitting, the National Assembly expanded the powers of the figure of the special commercial administrator of a critical infrastructure facility by adopting amendments to the Act on Administrative Regulation of Economic Activities Associated with Oil and Petroleum Products. The amendments were prompted by plans to appoint a special commercial administrator to oversee Russian oil company Lukoil's assets in Bulgaria, as the US Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control expanded its sanctions on Russia on October 22.
On October 31, Parliament temporarily banned the export and intra-Community supply of petroleum products, mainly diesel and aviation fuel, to European Union member states.
Chair of the State Agency State Reserve and Wartime Stocks Asen Asenov said on Tuesday that Bulgaria currently holds about 98% of the legally required 90-day fuel reserves. He said the country has petrol reserves for roughly 35 days and diesel reserves for more than 50 days, with about half of the total stored domestically and the rest abroad — including in Italy, the Netherlands, Hungary, Slovakia, Greece, and Romania — which could be transported to Bulgaria within 7 to 45 days if needed.
/RD/
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