Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2025 All Rights Reserved

Media speculations appear that Lukoil in Burgas will be bought by Azerbaijan's SOCAR

Photo: Reuters

The Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR is the most likely buyer of the Lukoil Neftohim Burgas refinery, reported the site of the Trud newspaper. At the end of April 2023, SOCAR opened an office in Sofia in the presence of the presidents of Bulgaria and Azerbaijan, Rumen Radev and Ilham Aliyev. At the same time, the Commission for Energy and Water Regulation granted a license to SOCAR Trading Gas and Power to trade natural gas on the Bulgarian market, Trud daily writes.

The famous economist Evgeny Kanev was the first to predict that the buyer would be SOCAR. He was joined on December 6 by Delyan Dobrev, the deputy from GERB, who is the chairman of the energy commission in the Parliament, according to the website of the Sega newspaper.

"Due to the geographical specifics of the production in Burgas and the logistics of supplying it with raw materials, the comments from the industry are that some interest in the refinery may come mainly from the Black Sea region, where the strong positions are held by the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR, which has a huge refinery in Turkey, and to Kazakhstan's KazMunayGas, owner of Romanian Rompetrol," wrote Capital.

SOCAR recently entered into an agreement with Russia's Lukoil, Reuters reported, according to which the Russian oil company will lend SOCAR $1.5 billion and supply SOCAR's STAR oil refinery in Turkey with up to 200,000 barrels per day of Russian crude oil.



Последвайте ни и в Google News Showcase, за да научите най-важното от деня!
Listen to the daily news from Bulgaria presented in "Bulgaria Today" podcast, available in Spotify.

More from category

Plamen Dimitrov

Bulgarian union leader warns of BGN 17–18 billion shortfall in draft budget

Plamen Dimitrov, president of Bulgaria’s largest trade union, the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB), has warned of a potential shortfall of around 17–18 billion leva (EUR 8.7–9.2 billion) in next year’s draft budget...

published on 10/17/25 3:16 PM
Hristijan Mickoski

North Macedonia's PM rules out unconditional constitutional recognition of Bulgarians

North Macedonian Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said his government will not unconditionally recognise Bulgarians in the country’s constitution.  “Nobody has the right to expect this government to make constitutional changes unconditionally,” he told..

published on 10/17/25 2:36 PM

Bulgarian rectors propose Danube University Alliances

‘The Bulgarian Rectors’ Council has proposed the creation of Danube University Alliances,’ said Professor Miglena Temelkova, the Council's chair, at the ‘Days of Bulgaria in Kecskemét, Hungary’ forum. The idea is for the alliances to include..

published on 10/17/25 2:13 PM