Cengiz and SOCAR Want to Buy Lukoil’s Burgas Refinery

Turkish Cengiz Holding and Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR are persisting in their planned purchase of the Russian Lukoil refinery in Bulgaria, Neftohim Burgas, Turkish newspaper Patronlar Dunyası reported on Tuesday.

The Turkish construction, energy, mining, and tourism conglomerate Cengiz and SOCAR submitted their offer just over a year ago, surpassing international competition, the Russian news agency Interfax cited the Turkish newspaper.

– We are talking about an investment worth around $2.5 billion. The refinery has a processing capacity of eight to 10 million tons of oil per year and has its own chain of gas stations – emphasized the head of the conglomerate Mehmet Cengiz in June to the Turkish newspaper, adding that this acquisition would allow them to enter the fuel retail and gas station sectors.

As we reported yesterday in Lider, Cengiz is completing the largest project in Croatia, the construction of a new and reconstruction of the existing railway track on the section Križevci – Koprivnica – state border with Hungary, and is seeking new jobs.

Cengiz and SOCAR’s offer has entered the final round of bidding, notes Patronlar Dunyası, and they were already on the verge of signing an agreement when on October 23, U.S. President Donald Trump announced sanctions against Lukoil and Rosneft, stating that Russia ‘is not seriously committed to the peace process to end the war in Ukraine,’ the newspaper reminds.

According to media reports in Azerbaijan, interest in the refinery has also been shown by the Kazakh state oil company KazmunayGas, the international trading company Vitol, the Turkish pension fund Oyak, and the Hungarian oil and gas company MOL. The interest of MOL in the refinery was confirmed last year by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, according to the Daily News Hungary portal in a report from early November.

Lukoil produces about two percent of the world’s oil, and its foreign assets, in addition to the Burgas refinery in Bulgaria and Petrotel in Romania, include a 75 percent stake in the Iraqi oil field West Qurna 2, which is among the largest in the world, as well as stakes in a number of oil terminals and gas station chains across Europe.

In addition to Hungarian and Slovak refineries, Lukoil also supplies oil to the Turkish STAR refinery, owned by SOCAR.

The Russian company announced a few days after the U.S. decision on sanctions that it had reached an agreement with Swiss trader Gunvor for the sale of foreign assets. The transaction was halted after the U.S. Treasury signaled that it would not issue a permit to Gunvor.

The owner of the Turkish conglomerate, Mehmet Cengiz, emphasized in an interview with Patronlar Dunyası that his company does not intend to withdraw its offer for Lukoil’s refinery in Bulgaria.

– Sanctions were imposed at a moment when we were a step away from signing (the contract – ed. note). We have not given up, we are studying possible measures, considering the legal aspect – said the head of Cengiz Holding.

The Bulgarian parliament last Friday adopted a law in an expedited procedure that provides for the appointment of a special administrator for Lukoil’s assets in Bulgaria and the continuation of all business activities, including oil processing, even after November 21, 2025, when U.S. sanctions against Russian Lukoil come into effect.

According to this law, shareholders will lose their voting rights and will not be allowed to sell shares in Lukoil’s Neftochim Burgas refinery, with these powers being transferred to a special administrator, who will need to obtain government approval for any sale.

The Neftochim Burgas refinery is majority-owned by Lukoil through its subsidiary LITASCO, registered in Switzerland, and the subsidiary Lukoil Oil Company. The remaining 0.15 percent is held by over 7,000 individual and corporate shareholders.