Bulgaria does not have 90-day fuel reserves, because some of the companies associated with Delyan Peevski are circumventing their obligation to provide fuel in reserves for such a period. This was stated by the co-chairman of “Yes, Bulgaria” Ivaylo Mirchev in his Facebook post.
“Bulgaria urgently needs to request its fuel reserves abroad. The head of the State Reserve has just confirmed what I have been saying since the beginning of the crisis with the sanctions against “Lukoil” "Our 90-day fuel reserves are not 90-day reserves," Mirchev warned.
The political leader accused the companies associated with Peevski of cutting costs and emphasized that they have working capital and free storage space.
“In order to circumvent their obligation and save costs, they obviously have an institutional and prosecutorial umbrella, including the State Reserve itself, the National Agency for National Security and the government. They probably also have protection in the Administrative Court of Plovdiv, where the preliminary execution of the reserve allocation, as provided for by law, has been suspended for more than 10 years, Mirchev said.
The People's Representative from the PP-DB adds that the 90-day reserves include fuels also stored in "Lukoil" warehouses, using the company's product pipeline, and part of the reserves are not in the form of gasoline and diesel, but of crude oil, which must be processed at "Lukoil".
“If on November 21 the refinery and its companies stop operating under US sanctions and cannot carry out transactions - what happens to the refinery's operations, the oil (from the reserves) that must be processed, and the warehouses storing gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel? It turns out that with the blocking of the “Lukoil” companies, part of the 90-day reserves will also be blocked,” emphasized Mirchev.
The MP also stated that about ⅓ of the 90-day reserves in question are located abroad, and according to the head of the State Reserve, their delivery to Bulgaria could take up to 45 days.
“How, after the full capacity for import by tankers into the country in a crisis will be filled by the extraordinary quantities that we will have to import, will we get back the part of the 90-day reserves in question, stored in various countries?”, Mirchev rhetorically asks.
The leader of “Yes, Bulgaria” emphasizes that the problem is not the lack of fuel, but that after November 21, there will be no way for the state to pay “Lukoil”, if the sanctions come into force and the US does not make an exception.
“One thing is clear - Bulgaria must immediately take action to ensure the availability of 100 percent of the reserves on the territory of the country,” concluded Mirchev.