There are several contenders for Lukoil’s Petrotel refinery in Romania, including Shell and Orlen, according to Valeri Andrianov, a senior lecturer at the Financial University, an institution subordinate to the government of Russia, cited by Economica.net in the context of the Russian company announcing its decision to sell its foreign assets following the US sanctions.
Lukoil operates in Romania the small-sized refinery Petrotel (2.5 million tonnes of crude per year), a chain of 320 gas stations, but it also operates two offshore blocks in Romania’s Black Sea-Est Rapsodia and Trident.
The Romanian assets are controlled by the Lukoil group through Swiss-registered Litasco, which also owns the Bulgarian refinery.
Lukoil announced on October 30 that it had received an offer for its overseas assets from Gunvor, a Cyprus-registered multinational, one of the world’s largest traders. The offer, however, regards Lukoil International GmbH, which owns a majority of the group’s foreign assets but not the Romanian ones.
“The key terms of the transaction have been agreed,” Lukoil said, adding that it had accepted Gunvor’s offer and pledged not to negotiate with other potential buyers.
In the meantime, in Bucharest, the Ministry of Energy announced that it has taken note of Lukoil’s public statement regarding the intention to sell its international assets and will start a process of evaluating the transaction within the Commission for the Examination of Foreign Direct Investments (CEISD), according to the legislation in force, Economica.net reported.
The ministry emphasises that an official position can only be expressed after complete clarification of the shareholding structure and the origin of the capital of any potential investor.
“We will be able to express a further position only after complete clarification of the shareholding structure and the origin of the capital of any potential investor, to guarantee that the transaction is carried out in full compliance with the adopted sanctions packages and Romania’s economic security standards,” the statement added.
On October 22, US president Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Russia’s largest oil companies, Lukoil and Rosneft.
iulian@romania-insider.com
(Photo source: Mira Agron/Dreamstime.com)
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