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Lukoil’s Romanian subsidiary the government for the introduction of Turkey suspends operations at
sanctions in line with the latest European
charged €10mn supplementary Commission’s decision. Ceyhan oil export terminal as
“The policy is to follow all the sanctions
profit tax brought by the European Commission, country comes to terms with
and we will probably continue like that,”
The Romanian tax collection agency ANAF, Bekteshi said at the news conference. two huge earthquakes
following an inspection carried out at the Bekteshi said that according to data
subsidiaries of Russian oil group Lukoil, released by the Energy Regulatory Operations at Ceyhan, a major oil export
calculated RON50mn (over €10mn) in Commission, no more than 20% of oil terminal on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast,
supplementary profit tax, related to profits in North Macedonia came from Russian were on February 6 suspended amid a
derived by the Romanian subsidiary of the refineries in the last few years, mainly from declared national state of emergency as a
Swiss-registered commodity trader Litasco one company with Russian capital, and the precaution as the country came to terms
in the year 2021. other was imported from Greece’s Hellenic with the two huge, deadly earthquakes that
At this moment, the Lukoil group is Petroleum, which mainly uses oil from struck its southeast earlier in the day leaving
contemplating the idea of selling out its other sources. thousands dead.
Romanian (and Moldovan) subsidiaries. “Those 15% to 20% can be covered by Ceyhan receives crude from two major
The supplementary profit tax owed was other sources of supply. A shortage of diesel cross-border pipelines, namely the Baku-
calculated following the allocation of trade and oil derivatives cannot happen,” the Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline that carries
operations to the local subsidiary of Swiss- minister said. oil from Azerbaijan across Georgia to
registered commodity trader Litasco (part Turkey’s Mediterranean coast and the
of Lukoil group). Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline that transports
Litasco is the crude oil and petroleum Hungary’s MOL could need to oil from northern Iraq. Turkish pipeline
products trading division of the Lukoil operator Botas said neither pipeline has
group, registered in Switzerland, the make divestments in Slovenia to been damaged.
division through which the Russian group The Ceyhan terminal exported just over
controls its most important businesses in clear OMV Slovenija takeover 1mn b/d of crude in January, according to
Romania: the Lukoil gas stations and the Vortexa, as cited by Argus. This included
Petrotel refinery located near Ploiești. MOL could be forced to sell 53 petrol around 665,000 b/d of Azerbaijani crude
Lukoil’s two businesses (retail and stations in Slovenia to comply with through the BTC and 395,000 b/d of Iraq’s
refining) reported cumulative net profits European Commission’s competition rules, Kirkuk blend through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan.
of over RON182mn in 2021, according Slovenian media reported on February 6. Operations at Turkey’s port of Dortyol,
to their official tax statements – the bulk The Hungarian oil company announced located across the Bay of Iskenderun
of this being recorded by the fuel filling in June that it would buy a 92.5% stake from Ceyhan, were also suspended until
stations (over RON160mn, with a turnover in OMV Slovenija, the country’s second- further notice. Around 1.9mn tonnes of oil
of almost RON8bn). largest fuel retailer for €301mn, adding products, LPG and biofuels were exported
In the same year, the refinery reported 120 petrol stations to its network. MOL is from the port last year, while almost 3mn
a net profit of about RON22mn and a already the third-largest fuel retailer with 53 tonnes were imported, according to the
turnover of over RON1bn. pump stations. Vortexa data.
Litasco Geneva Bucharest Branch According to Dnevnik, the European
(originally Ploiești Branch) was established Commission has postponed indefinitely the
in Romania in November 2020, as Litasco approval for MOL to take over 120 petrol Hungary’s MOL begins
Geneva’s permanent headquarters, stations in Slovenia as the merger between
and reported a net profit of only about the second and third-largest players could rebranding Lotos fuel stations in
RON250,000 and a turnover of RON7.2mn. hurt competition leading to an oligopolistic
market, led by Petrol with 318 stations. Poland
The Commission’s preliminary
North Macedonia to ban imports investigation showed that MOL and OMV Hungarian oil and gas company MOL has
started the rebranding of Lotos fuel stations
Slovenia compete head-to-head in many
of diesel from Russia areas, thus the transaction would thus across Poland that it acquired under
remove the main competitive constraints for provisions of a merger of Lotos and PKN
North Macedonian Economy Minister the two leading companies on the market. Orlen, Poland’s fuels and energy group.
Kreshnik Bekteshi said on February 7 that Entry costs to the market, regulatory MOL signed an agreement in January
the government will ban the import of barriers and a scarcity of attractive locations to acquire 417 Lotos petrol stations for
diesel oil from Russia as part of the EU also hinder market competition in the short $610mn (€568mn) after the European
sanctions. to medium term, it argued in an earlier Commission required PKN Orlen to divest
Two days ago, EU imposed a ban assessment. assets as a condition for approval of its
on Russian diesel and other refined oil MOL looks ready to comply with acquisition of Lotos.
products as part of sanctions against Russia the European Commission competition At the same time, MOL agreed to sell 185
due to its one-year invasion of Ukraine. assessment and divest some of its petrol of its own petrol stations to PKN Orlen for
Bekteshi said that the Foreign Ministry stations, Dvenvnik wrote. $259mn.
is expected to give a recommendation to MOL has become the third-biggest

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