After the U.S. announced on Wednesday night tough sanctions against Russian oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft, including their subsidiaries, for Russia’s “lack of interest in the peace process” in Ukraine, Ion Sturza, former Moldovan prime minister and former deputy CEO of Rompetrol, warned that Romania and Moldova would be severely affected.
In his Facebook post, Sturza reminds that by November 21, all banks and companies must stop cooperating with Lukoil and subsidiaries in which it owns more than 50%.
“These two companies together produce about 270 million tons of hydrocarbons per year out of a total volume of 516 million tons produced by Russia. 30% of this volume is exported – to India, China, Hungary, Slovakia, Serbia. Indirectly also to Romania and Moldova,” says Sturza.
He also notes that Lukoil has “20% of the retail market” in Romania and Moldova, with “300 gas stations in Romania and [more than] 100 in Moldova.” Once the sanctions take effect, these filling stations will not close immediately, but will require a “special transitional license,” notes the former deputy general director of Rompetrol.
It is also worth noting that Lukoil is the second largest operator of the oil products market in Moldova. And its possible withdrawal from the market will greatly destabilize (for a while) its activity.
The authorities in Chisinau have already reacted: “There is no risk that Moldova will be left without oil products,” said acting Energy Minister Dorin Jungietu.
At the same time, the National Energy Regulatory Agency (ANRE) reports that it has invited representatives of Lukoil-Moldova to explain the organizational aspects of the current situation and the measures to be taken under the new international conditions.
