US Ambassador Tours Notorious Lukoil Bulgaria Refinery

The Lukoil refinery (pictured), which is being visited Friday by the US Ambassador in Sofia, is the only one in Bulgaria. Photo by BGNES

American Ambassador in Sofia, James Warlick, is visiting Friday the only oil refinery in the country – Lukoil Neftohim in the Black Sea city of Burgas.

The diplomat is accompanied by the CEO of the Russian-owned Lukoil Bulgaria, Valentin Zlatev and the Mayor of Burgas, Dimitar Nikolov. After touring the refinery and the Rosenets oil terminal, Warlick will give a press conference.

Bulgarian, American, EU, and Russian flags are floating all over the plant in the occasion of the visit.

A little bit over a week ago, former US Ambassador to Bulgaria, James Pardew, commented in an interview for the Trud (Labor) daily that the revocation of Lukoil's license was political drama play at the highest level – lots of noise, lots of smoke, and nothing happening at the end.

As expected, Warlick disassociated from Pardew's statements, saying they are coming from a now-private citizen. In the beginning of the month, the Ambassador pointed out the issue with the license belongs to the Court.

The Lukoil saga emerged at the end of July when the Customs Head, Vanyo Tanov, issued an order to revoke Lukoil's license to operate excise warehouses over the company's failure to install the required electronic measuring devices within the deadline.

The Court, however, returned the license, and the refinery resumed fuel production.

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