(MENAFN) Bulgaria is confronting growing anxiety over its fuel security as US-imposed sanctions on the Russian energy corporation Lukoil threaten to interrupt activities at the nation’s primary oil refinery, Energy Minister Zhecho Stankov cautioned on Tuesday.

Stankov assured that “the security of supply at affordable prices is guaranteed,” yet admitted that Bulgaria’s fuel reserves may not endure for long if production at the Burgas refinery comes to a standstill.

“The quantities of fuel available on the territory of Bulgaria are sufficient to supply Bulgarian citizens and businesses for a long period,” Stankov stated during the Fortifying Freedom: Defence and Democracy Dialogue held in Sofia, according to a Bulgarian news agency.

He stressed that his ministry maintains continuous communication with the US Office of Foreign Assets Control to reach a resolution before November 21, the date when the refinery’s functioning might be impacted.

However, opposition representatives contested his confidence. Continue the Change–Democratic Bulgaria (CC-DB) lawmaker Ivaylo Mirchev argued that fuel reserves kept abroad “are not real 90-day reserves,” pressing the authorities to promptly repatriate them.

“The head of the State Reserve has just confirmed what I have been saying since the beginning of the crisis with the sanctions against Lukoil: our 90-day fuel reserves are not actually 90-day reserves,” Mirchev cautioned.

Previously, Asen Asenov, head of the State Reserve and Wartime Stocks Agency, informed a news outlet that Bulgaria possesses petrol reserves adequate for roughly 35 days and diesel supplies lasting slightly over 50 days.

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