Podcast in English
Text size
Bulgarian National Radio © 2026 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

Yellow code for strong wind in 16 eastern and southwestern regions

On Wednesday , the lowest temperatures will be between 3 and 8°C. In the regions with strong wind it will be up to 10-12°C. In Sofia it will be around 4°C. In the western parts of the Danube Plain and the Upper Thracian Plain it will..

published on 11/25/25 7:50 PM

Drones to aid disaster and fire response in Burgas

Following a series of fires in the Burgas area last summer, including one that destroyed homes in a local villa district, the Burgas municipality has acquired high-tech drones equipped with thermal cameras, night vision, and 3D imaging . The two..

published on 11/25/25 7:01 PM

Bulgarian police break up migrant smuggling network

Illegal migrants from Syria, Iraq and Iran have been discovered in Sofia, and ten members of an organised criminal group have been arrested , Deputy City Prosecutor Desislava Petrova told reporters. Two of those arrested have been charged as the..

published on 11/25/25 6:48 PM