AlwaysFree: Lukoil Once Again Denies Allegations Of Fuel Supplies To Ukraine, Threatens Lawsuit

• "In connection with a new wave of speculative publications in the media, Lukoil once again declares that it has no contracts and did not supply its products to Ukraine either from its plant in Burgas or through any other channels in 2022," the company said in a statement

According to TASS, Russia's state-owned news agency article published on January 25, 2023,  Russian oil major Lukoil has once again denied reports about the supply of fuel to Ukraine from its plant in Bulgaria or through other channels and does not rule out filing a lawsuit, the company said.

"In connection with a new wave of speculative publications in the media, Lukoil once again declares that it has no contracts and did not supply its products to Ukraine either from its plant in Burgas (Bulgaria) or through any other channels in 2022," the company said in an official statement. Lukoil emphasized that such assumptions had been previously refuted by a representative of the Russian embassy in Bulgaria.

"The company reserves the right to go to court to protect its business reputation," Lukoil said in a statement.

According to the company, the statements about the alleged deliveries resulted from the internal political struggle abroad and the anti-Russian campaign. In Russia such statements emerged in the public space due to unscrupulous competition in the domestic energy market, the company added.

"This deliberately false, unsubstantiated and provocative information was thrown in by our country's opponents in European states to resolve their purely domestic political disputes. It has been repeatedly refuted by Lukoil. Its appearance and artificial circulation in the public space of Russia is, in our opinion, due to unscrupulous competition in the domestic energy market. Such incorrect behavior of individual market participants not only contradicts the principles of healthy competition, but also seriously interferes with the normal operation of the Russian fuel and energy complex and Lukoil in an acute geopolitical situation, and encourages the initiators of anti-Russian provocations, "the statement says.

Media reports

Earlier, the German newspaper Die Welt reported, citing ex-Minister of Finance of Bulgaria Asen Vasilev, that Bulgaria secretly supplied the Ukrainian armed forces with diesel fuel through foreign intermediary firms after Russia started its special military operation and that those oil products were produced at the Lukoil Neftokhim Burgas refinery.

Talking to TASS, the Russian Embassy in Bulgaria denied information about the supply of diesel fuel produced at the Lukoil Neftochim Burgas plant to Ukraine.

Lukoil then stated that the Bulgarian authorities never turned to the management of its enterprises with a request to supply fuel to Ukraine, and the company discusses only business issues with the country's government agencies. Lukoil noted that the products of the refinery in Burgas are sold wholesale and retail on the domestic market exclusively to Bulgarian buyers, the number of small wholesale buyers is about 500. Lukoil's share on the diesel market in Bulgaria is about 95%, while the company's sales volumes in 2022 in the country were significantly below the level of its consumption.

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