Romania’s Tax Authority ANAF has seized the assets of the Ploiesti Petrotel refinery, owned by Lukoil, according to market sources.

It means that the company can’t sell the gasoline and the diesel it refines. To fuel its gas stations, Lukoil will need to rely on the free market, where it will buy fuel at a higher price than the one produced at its Ploiesti refinery.

ANAF declined to comment on the Lukoil situation, but market sources said that Tax Authority seized the tax warehouse, reports local Digi24.

ANAF inspectors are checking all the company’s documents and want to see what excises Lukoil applied to refined products. The refinery’s almost 1,000 employees could lose their jobs.

Last autumn, Romanian prosecutors have decided the seizure of oil and fuels inventories worth EUR 235 million belonging to Petrotel Lukoil, the local subsidiary of Russian group Lukoil.

Lukoil notifies Romanian authorities about Ploiesti refinery production re-start.

editor@romania-insider.com