Starting from the beginning of 2024, Bulgaria started importing oil from Kazakhstan, Iraq and Tunisia instead of Russian raw materials. writes about this Reuters according to data from traders and LSEG (London Stock Exchange Group).
Although Bulgaria had previously refused to participate in the EU embargo on oil supplies from the Russian Federation, from the beginning of January 2024 the country decided to limit the export of all oil products produced from Russian oil. Bulgaria plans to completely stop all crude oil imports from Russia as of March.
Bulgaria purchases oil to supply the Burgas refinery with a capacity of 190 thousand barrels per day (b/d). Production belongs to the Russian company Lukoil, which has owned the refinery since 1998. Investments made since 1998 for the modernization of the facility in Burgas amounted to approximately 3.4 billion dollars.
At the end of 2023, Bulgaria became the fourth largest buyer of seaborne oil imports from Russia. On average, the country purchased more than 100 thousand barrels of Russian raw materials per day.
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