Bulgarian Rightist Leader Seeks Antitrust Raid on Lukoil Refinery

Martin Dimitrov, leader of the right-wing Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), has called for an antitrust raid on the Burgas-based Lukoil Neftochim refinery. Photo by BGNES

Martin Dimitrov, leader of the right-wing Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), has insisted that the Commission on Protection of Competition (KZK) should raid the offices of the Lukoil Neftochim refinery and seize telephones and computers and check its business communications and correspondence.

On a similar note, right-wing Democrats for Strong Bulgaria (DSB) suggested recently that the State Agency for National Security (DANS) should conduct a money laundering probe at Lukoil.

In a Tuesday interview for private TV station Nova TV, Dimitrov voiced his indignation over the high prices of fuels in Bulgaria and the monopoly position of the refinery.

The right-wing leader illustrated his point with the EU antitrust authority which he said had raided the offices of the Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) and had seized the phones of a number of senior officials, among them political persons.

He noted that the Bulgarian competition watchdog had to apply the same approach to fight the the abuse of a dominant position by the company.

What the UDF leader had in mind were the surprise raids conducted by the EU antitrust watchdog on 20 sites across 10 countries in Central and Eastern Europe in end-September 2011.

The premises of Bulgargaz, Overgas and other firms in Bulgaria were searched during the campaign.

A few days ago, DSB leader Ivan Kostov also condemned the monopoly of Lukoil and Gazprom.

In the beginning of March, DSB insisted that DANS should check the money flows of Lukoil and and investigate the business for alleged money laundering.

In his Tuesday TV statement, Dimitrov accused KZK of failing to do its job conscientiously and of catering to the well-being of monopolies, unlike its EU counterpart.

He insisted that the Lukoil Neftochim refinery had a monopoly position on the Bulgarian market because fuel import was restricted.

The right-wing leader claimed that customs and tax warehouses were subject to a special licensing regime and were held by a strictly defined group of companies, which was an obstruction to cheaper import from Greece and Romania, when possible.

Dimitrov argued that the introduction of measuring devices and the licenses of tax warehouses had failed to boost budget revenues and had rather increased Neftochim's monopoly.

He said that his allegations could easily be verified through an inquiry of the receipts from fuel excise duty.

Later on Tuesday, the UDF leader gave a press conference during which he demanded a hearing of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov to be scheduled this week on the issue of the Belene NPP.

He stressed that there were 18 days left in which Bulgaria had to make the final decision on the nuclear power station project.

The UDF leader reasoned that the best decision for Bulgaria would be to suspend the project and install the reactor, for which the country had already paid 60% of the cost, at the Kozloduy NPP or to sell the installation, if possible.

Meanwhile, President Rosen Plevneliev announced that the solution to the problem with the growing fuel prices was liberalization.

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