At the hearing in parliament today, Rumen Radev announced that "Lukoil Neftochim" has 450 million euros of working capital, with which the company can "freely buy and supply crude oil for processing". This is actually big news, because according to the company's report, the cash at the end of 2025 is 151 million leva (6 times less), and at the end of 2024 - only 72 million leva.
This was written on "Facebook" by the MP from "Democratic Bulgaria" Vladislav Panev.
Without equating working capital and profit (these are different things), I am curious whether we cannot conclude that "Lukoil" is taking maximum advantage of the historically high margins for diesel processing and is extracting record "excess profits" from this activity. There are such all over the world, due to the reduced processing capacities for military reasons.
Then another question arises - given that this activity is so profitable and monopolistic, why does the government not provide for an excess profit tax for it? Unlike other, quite competitive businesses.
I will ask Minister Pulev clarifying questions on the subject, as I am curious whether the Prime Minister is not handling some numbers too frivolously or has missed the actual profits of the Burgas refinery.