Lukoil threatens to shut down refinery in Romania if prosecutors’ asset seizure not lifted

Russian oil and gas company Lukoil threatens to completely shut down the refinery in Ploiesti, should prosecutors not lift the asset seizure by tomorrow. The group’s first vice-president Vladimir Nekrasov arrived to Romania and had talks with vice-prime minister Liviu Dragnea, the energy minister Răzvan Nicolescu and with the prosecutor who handles the Lukoil tax evasion and money laundry case. Prosecutors have seized strategic crude oil stocks, as well as oil and gas stocks and all the refinery’s assets, and while payments from parent company Lukoil to the refinery were also blocked, said Nekrasov. He will return to Moscow today, and a decision about the refinery in Romania will be made tomorrow. Lukoil Petrotel will pay USD 700 million in taxes to the state budget this year. “This amount can be considered precautionary measures. If the refinery will not exist anymore, the state won’t make this money, because we’re shutting it down,” said Nekrasov. He said the company however understands state official have not the right to interfere with the investigation. The refinery’s main client is parent company Lukoil Romania, which has 300 gas stations, and closing down the refinery will also affect the company’s activity, as it will have to buy oil from other companies or other countries, at higher prices. “We are willing to compromise, and we will announce it these days,” said the Russian manager. He concluded that the file does not have any political connotation. Lukoil’s Romanian refinery resumes production after prosecutors lift seizure on accounts and inventories Romanian prosecutors seize EUR 235 mln worth of Lukoil inventories in tax evasion case editor@romania-insider.com