Gazprom puts Bulgarian service stations up for sale

The company is looking to value its assets between €60 million to €80 million , which includes 23 NIS fueling sites.

Russian Gazprom Neft plans to sell its fuel retail business in Bulgaria, seeking a valuation between €60 million to €80 million.

Gazprom’s oil subsidiary is looking to divest 23 locations that operate under the company’s name, a tax warehouse and 12 land plots, according to a business daily Capital report.

The company has explored a potential exit from the Bulgarian market and, according to sources cited by the report, it is the first time the firm hires an investment consultant to advise on the sale of the assets. November 23 is the due date for any interested parties to submit bids.

The company also operates NIS Petrol stations in the country, part of the Serbia-based NIS Group, which is a subsidiary of the Russian giant. Other countries in which the NIS chain is present are Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania and Russia.

NIS started the year with 34 sites and, by the end of September, numbers went down to 23. Bulgaria is currently the only EU member that imports Russian seaborne crude. This deal is under an exemption granted by the EU Commission in 2022 from the sanctions imposed on Russian companies in response to the war in Ukraine.

More than 75% of Bulgaria’s fuel comes from the Lukoil Neftohim Burgas refinery, a subsidiary of the European arm of Lukoil. Last September, the Bulgarian parliament voted to oblige the refinery to switch to non-Russian crude by October 1, 2024, or three months before the exemption is due to expire.