SOFIA (Reuters) -The Bulgarian parliament on Thursday overruled a presidential veto on legislation allowing the government to take control of Lukoil’s oil refinery and sell it to shield the asset from looming U.S. sanctions.
The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and Britain imposed sanctions last month on Lukoil and Rosneft, Russia’s two biggest oil companies, escalating pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine and threatening their operations across Europe.
Lawmakers approved changes last week giving a government-appointed commercial manager powers to oversee the continued operation of Lukoil’s refinery in Bulgaria beyond November 21, when the U.S. sanctions are due to take effect, and to sell the company if needed.
President Rumen Radev vetoed the bill on Wednesday, warning it lacked safeguards against future financial claims against the state.
Parliament rejected his objections by 128 votes to 59 on Thursday, the Bulgarian news agency BTA reported.
The U.S. sanctions have raised concerns about winter fuel supplies in Bulgaria, where Lukoil runs the Burgas refinery, hundreds of petrol stations and fuel storage facilities.
Lukoil has sought an extension from Washington to the sanctions deadline, which prohibits transactions with the Russian company after November 21, seeking more time to wind down commitments and review offers for its global assets, three sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
Before Thursday’s move, Boyko Borissov, Bulgaria’s former prime minister and leader of the GERB party that heads the coalition government, was optimistic that Bulgaria would secure an extension as early as next week.
“Together with the government, we are working so that both the people in the refinery and the refinery itself work well,” BTA quoted Borissov as saying.
(Reporting by Stoyan Nenov; Writing by Angeliki Koutantou;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
