Petrotel Lukoil, the company which runs the Petrotel refinery in Ploiesti, sold oil products below production costs to companies within the Lukoil group and other offshore companies, according to Romanian prosecutors.

The company thus transferred its profit to other companies outside Romania, according to the prosecutors’ case against Petrotel Lukoil and its managers, which was sent to court this week.

Petrotel Lukoil has recorded losses of hundreds of millions of lei in the past years, because of the management’s decision to sell oil below costs. The company’s managers have built a mechanism for decapitalizing its resources.

Romanian prosecutors decided to send to court their case against the companies Petrotel Lukoil Ploiesti and Lukoil Europe BV Netherlands, both part of the Russian group Lukoil. They also indicted Russian citizen Andrey Iurevici Bogdanov, the director of Petrotel Lukoil, and other managers, including two other Russian citizens.

They are accused of having caused the Romanian state a EUR 1.76 billion damage, through tax evasion and money laundering operations.

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editor@romania-insider.com