As of January 1, 126.9 million litres of crude oil originating in or exported from Russia, and imported in Bulgaria based on an exception from an EU ban on Russian oil, are available in Bulgaria, according to the data provided by the Customs Agency.
The figure is based on a check by the customs authorities carried out on the first day of the year at Lukoil Neftohim Burgas and over 50 other tax warehouses.
According to the data, the available crude oil originating in or exported from Russia that has been imported in Bulgaria after December 5, 2022, based on the exception to the EU ban, is 126,890,694 litres out of a total of 473,268,974 litres of crude oil available in this country.
The main objective of these checks was to inventory the available quantities of oil imported based on the derogation.
In December, Bulgaria decided to ban the export of products produced from Russian oil from January 1, 2024, and then ban Russian oil imports to Bulgaria from March 1.