The Lukoil Neftohim Burgas oil refinery near Burgas, Bulgaria, on Mar. 13.
Photographer: Michaela Vatcheva/BloombergOil Giant Takes Center Stage in Bulgaria’s Pivot From Russia
Dismantling key business links with Russia by ousting Lukoil would mark the end of an era. But not everyone is happy.
It’s hard to miss Lukoil in Bulgaria. Its sprawling oil refinery near the Black Sea coast, surrounded by fields of freshly ploughed soil, dominates the area. A quarter of the people in the nearby town of Kameno either work there or have ties to the plant. The Russian company also has more than 220 gasoline stations in the country.
Yet the peaceful and lucrative co-existence between Lukoil and the European Union’s poorest outpost was broken when Vladimir Putin attacked Ukraine a little over two years ago. Now, decades of good business between Bulgaria and Russia face a moment of reckoning as Lukoil looks at selling up and leaving because of what it calls political pressure.