Bulgaria: Lukoil Bulgaria’s oil port under inspection

Published on 4. June 2021., SEE Energy News

Lukoil, which owns the largest oil refinery in the Balkans, which is also located near Burgas, has paid almost no corporate tax to the state in the last decade and usually ends the financial year at a loss.

Border police officers, tax and customs inspectors have launched an inspection of Russian oil company Lukoil’s oil port located near the Bulgarian Black Sea city of Burgas.

Caretaker Minister of Economy Asen Vassilev said that the inspection should gather information about the operation of the oil terminal. Lukoil received a 35-year concession for the oil terminal in 2011, granted by former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov’s first Government.

The authorities will verify whether the Russian company has been declaring its corporate tax correctly, and particularly whether the Russian oil is first being transferred to another country and then to Bulgaria at higher prices. This would make it possible for the company to hide its profits from the country where the oil is actually used.

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