Bulgaria may request a derogation that would allow it to appoint a special manager and take the company "Lukoil Bulgaria" under state control in order to guarantee the security of supplies and in a short period to carry out the sale of the assets. This is not nationalization! As far as I know, this is not the main option being worked on at the moment.
This was told to the Bulgarian National Radio by energy expert Martin Vladimirov, director of the "Energy and Climate" program at the Center for the Study of Democracy, regarding the sanctions imposed by the US on the Russian oil companies "Rosneft" and "Lukoil", specifying that the special manager is appointed by the Minister of Economy:
"There is legislation adopted in 2023 for the special manager, but it must be urgently changed in order to expand his powers so that he can negotiate the sale of assets, currently the law does not allow this. ... The special manager takes over the operational activities of the enterprise, without changing the ownership and without violating the ownership of the company's assets. The powers of the special manager are limited only to operating with "Lukoil" funds for the purchase of crude oil and for the sale of finished fuels on the wholesale market. All profits from this activity are placed in a special trust fund, which is available to "Lukoil" when the sanctions are lifted or a change of ownership occurs. That is, these funds are in no way nationalized by the state. As far as I know, the government is very worried about this option, because it requires great administrative and professional capacity. Our analysis shows that this is the only option for dealing with the situation that will certainly guarantee control by the government. All that remains is hope that there will be some understanding at the global level in a period of less than 3 weeks for a deal and for assets that are in a dozen countries and cover billions of dollars. It is risky for Bulgaria to expect that things will be resolved by themselves, without interfering at all.
"The attempt to create a political narrative through which to win an exception, a postponement, does not work with Trump. In Germany, the situation is very different, it is important to understand why it is being given a postponement. Germany took over operational control over the Rosneft refinery in the East German city of Schwed back in 2022 as a measure to protect the country's national security. There were no sanctions against "Rosneft" then. Now the US is giving Germany a concession, i.e. a grace period of 6 months, during which Germany must complete the sale of the assets, which it has been trying to do since 2022. That is, this exception is entirely to complete this transaction," he commented.
"The problem of why a strategic Western investor has not appeared so far is simple, the reason is that "Lukoil" wants to negotiate with its friends with whom it can unite the supply chains in the Black Sea basin - these are Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Turkey. "Lukoil" supplies huge quantities of oil to Turkey, after which it is processed and exported to EU countries as Turkish products. Russian companies make billions from this. This is a gap in EU sanctions legislation. "The Russian company does not want to lose this model," Vladimirov pointed out.
According to Vladimirov, the moratorium imposed by parliament on the export of diesel and aviation fuel from Bulgaria will intensify the fuel crisis in Serbia and may create conditions for smuggling.