Economist: Sanctions Against Lukoil hit Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova Harder than Russia

American sanctions against Russian companies Rosneft and Lukoil cannot and will not lead to the expected results, said Russian economist Sergey Aleksashenko, who has been added to the Russian authorities’ list of “foreign agents”. “Nothing will happen. Perhaps Rosneft and Lukoil will offer more discounts on exported oil. A year ago, the Biden administration imposed similar sanctions against Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegaz, which produce about 25% of all Russian oil, while Rosneft and Lukoil produce about 50%. After the sanctions imposed by Biden, oil production and exports from Russia did not decrease. The same will happen after the sanctions imposed by Trump,” Aleksashenko said in an interview with Current Time TV channel, according to mold-street.com. According to the economist, the reason is the world’s high dependence on Russian oil, which accounts for approximately 7% of the global market. “There is no a single country or company in the world that could increase production enough to replace Russian oil on the global market,” Aleksashenko emphasized. According to him, sanctions against the Lukoil group will hit hardest in countries where the oil giant controls significant market segments – Bulgaria, Romania and the Republic of Moldova. “For example, Bulgaria has a maximum of 50 days of petroleum product reserves left, but what will happen next? At the same time, the oil refinery in Burgas, owned by Lukoil (the largest refinery in the Balkans), no longer processes Russian oil... The same is true in Romania, where Lukoil supplied about a quarter of the oil products market... As for Moldova, it was 100% dependent on aviation kerosene supplied by Lukoil,” the economist said.