The Kazakh state oil and gas company "KazMunayGas" wants to buy the "Lukoil" refinery in Burgas. This is the most expected and logical candidate for the purchase of Lukoil-Neftokhim. First, because the Kazakhs can supply the refinery in Burgas with raw material from the Black Sea waters without sending tankers through the Turkish Straits, and second, because the seller "Lukoil" and the potential buyer "KazMunayGas" have long been jointly developing various projects for oil production and transportation..
This was commented on "Facebook" expert Plamen Dimitrov.
Kazakhstan produces about 90 million tons of oil per year,
with most of this amount being exported via the pipeline from Tengiz to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. In 2023, 63.5 million tons were transported along this route, and in 2024 - more, but there are no final figures yet. This is about 10 times more than the needs of the Burgas refinery. Of the volume transported for 2023, 56 million tons are oil from Kazakhstan and 7.5 million tons - from Russia. It is understandable that at the exit of the pipe in Novorossiysk there is no way to physically separate Kazakh oil from Russian.
The capacity of the Tengiz - Novorossiysk pipeline is 72 million tons per year on Kazakh territory and 83 million tons. in Russian,
This is probably the largest oil pipeline in the world in terms of transmission capacity.
Now for the joint business of "Lukoil" and KazMunayGas. Kazakhstan has three major oil fields - Tengiz, Karachaganak and Kashagan. In Tengiz, KazMunayGas has a 20% share, and "Lukoil" - 5%, with the leading shareholder being the American "Chevron" with 50%. In Karachaganak, KazMunayGas has 10%, and "Lukoil" - 13.5%. In addition, the Russian and Kazakh companies are jointly developing several smaller fields in the Caspian Sea, the output from them is exported through the already mentioned Tengiz-Novorossiysk pipeline. And in it, KazMunayGas is one of the many shareholders with a 19% stake, and "Lukoil" is also represented with 12.5%.
And another important thing - "KazMunayGas" is already present in the Balkans through the Romanian company "Rompetrol" owned by it.
Through Rompetrol, Kazakhstan owns two refineries in Romania ("Petromidi" and "Vega"), which is 45% of the entire oil processing capacity in our northern neighbor. "Rompetrol" also has a large chain of gas stations in several countries.
The problem with "KazMunayGas" for the Burgas refinery is the same as the one with the Hungarian MOL –
suspicions of strong ties of the Kazakhs to Russia. If "KazMunayGas" becomes the owner of "Lukoil-Neftekhim" it will be very difficult to understand whether Russian oil, the import of which is prohibited in the EU, will not be processed there.