Top man Lukoil Benelux: ‘Jobs in Belgium and the Netherlands not threatened until sanctions kick in’
As long as the US sanctions against Lukoil do not take effect, the thousand direct and indirect jobs at the Benelux branch of the oil giant are guaranteed. That is what general director Ivo Hoskens told Belgian VRT this morning.
It was the first time since the United States announced sanctions against Russian oil companies Lukoil and Rosneft in mid-October that the Belgian top executive had responded. In an exchange with Belgian public broadcaster VRT, he revealed that Lukoil Benelux’s operations account for a thousand direct and indirect jobs. He stated that he has no intention of cutting those jobs as long as Lukoil’s trading activities are not hampered.
The sanctions package has forced Lukoil to sell its non-Russian assets. This is very difficult, as the company wants to dispose of all assets at once, and interested buyers are only after specific parts. Lukoil therefore got another reprieve from the Americans in December to complete the transfer. Now it should have disposed of everything by 29 April.
In the Benelux, Lukoil owns nearly 250 petrol stations and two storage terminals in Neder-over-Heembeek and Maastricht. It also has a 45 per cent stake in the Zeeland refinery in the port of Vlissingen. These too are for sale as part of the whole foreign Lukoil package, not separately. As to what the new owner plans to do with the petrol stations, Hoskens was unable to comment.
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