View allAll Photos Tagged lukoil
RA-65943 Tupolev TU-134A-3 Kolavia
Ex Malev HA-LBR and Lukoil Avia EW-65943. Kolavia was re-branded MetroJet in 2013.
This is Druzhba station and the black/red/gray snake-like Vectron train is the very first one to come all the way directly from Vratsa to Burgas.
81 972 of DMV Cargo Rail has just arrived near the Lukoil Neftochim petrol refinery and is awaiting further instructions for uncoupling from the empty tanks train. Way in the back, pusher loco 80 961 can be barely seen...
These days the DMV Cargo Vectrons are running a pair of empty tanker trains to the Lukoil oil refinery near Burgas. While they are considerably shorter than what we've been used to see from the new operator so far, the sight is still eye-catching.
Figher 1 or Vectron 80 961 is seen stopped at Makotsevo station on its way to the Black Sea.
P.S. Sometimes bad weather is the best kind there is.
In a similar fashion to one of the first images I made in the Support for Ukraine series, here we have a dandelion seed as the foundation for water droplets, refracting the image of the Ukrainian flag in the background. This time, sheets of sparkling paper were used. This makes for a lively effect, and the out-of-focus sparkles in the background make for a pleasing “bokeh”.
When things refract, they flip. In order to get the flag to appear in the proper orientation in the droplets, the actual flag has to be placed in the background upside down. An upside-down flag can also be symbolic, as a sign of distress and a request for immediate help. Ukraine has been making such a call for nearly a year now, and the world continues to help. There have been some big developments, some of which you probably haven’t heard of.
An important line has been crossed: other nations are considering or confirming their desire to send main battle tanks to Ukraine. Germany is an odd hold-out, and they have been strangely hesitant to send any aid to Ukraine since the conflict began. Yesterday (January 21, 2023), Germany and it’s allies met at the Ramstein Air Base to discuss the issues, and there was no conclusive answer. Germany can block the transfer of Leopard tanks from other nations, and vaguely said that they would not do this – but with nothing formally stated.
Even without the leopard tanks, the flood of military aid to Ukraine has been massive. More patriot air defense equipment, among many additional defensive armaments. Effectively every country that had previously supported Ukraine is turning up the dial further. And for this, Russia is getting desperate.
Putin has replaced the commander in Ukraine after only three months. Sergei Surovikin will be replaced with Army General Valery Gerasimov. Days after this announcement was made, a horrendous attack in Dnipro followed. On January 14th, a Russian aircraft launched a Kh-22 missile, allegedly aiming to destroy electrical infrastructure. It missed, and destroyed an apartment building. 46 innocent lives were lost, including six children. There’s a tribute to the victims here: kyivindependent.com/national/here-are-the-victims-of-russ...
The Kh-22 missile, though. This weapon was originally designed in 1962 and has a 1000kg warhead. It was intended to be fired at aircraft carriers, and as such, is wildly inaccurate for urban use. Someone in Russia’s command thought this was an acceptable action to take. Such actions continue to disregard human lives and add to the seemingly endless list of war crimes.
This week brought about some interesting positive news, however. It involves actions taken semi-secretly by Bulgaria. Die Welt conducted an investigative journal of the actions taken by Bulgaria since the beginning of the conflict, and Politico created a summarized English version: www.politico.eu/article/bulgaria-volodymyr-zelenskyy-kiri...
I’ll summarize it for you in point form:
- Bulgaria is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of 152mm Soviet-era artillery ammunition.
- At the start of the war, entire cargo planes were filled with munitions and delivered to third-party countries including Poland, for eventual transport to Ukraine.
- Bulgaria’s only oil refinery is just south of us on the Black Sea near Burgas. It receives oil from Russian tankers, and is owned my Russian company Lukoil.
- That facility has supplied Ukraine with 40% of its diesel fuel, transported by truck and train.
- Much of this was done in secrecy to maintain the coalition government where some parties were pro-Russian.
- With a current caretaker government in place before new elections, the government has now officially agreed to supply Ukraine with further weapons.
40% of Ukraine’s fuel, more than 32,000 barrels a day ( www.novinite.com/articles/218499/32%2C000+Barrels+of+Fuel... ) comes from a Russian-affiliated refinery in Bulgaria. To ensure this arrangement continues, laws have very recently been passed that could allow the Bulgarian government to take control of the facility for up to a year if needed ( ca.news.yahoo.com/bulgaria-clears-way-control-lukoil-1209... ).
Former Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov was also the person who suggested in an emergency meeting on February 25, 2022, to cut Russia off the SWIFT banking system. That suggestion was adopted, and Russia is furious with Bulgaria for it ( www.novinite.com/articles/218512/Russia+on+Petkov%3A+The+... ).
Many nations are helping Ukraine defend itself and defeat Russia. Many of the ways which other nations help are not seen. Much of this can never become public, or is only fully realized years later. While I can say this is true for Bulgaria, I hope that there is a lot more going on behind the scenes across the globe to help Ukraine.
And to that end, this image is in the Public Domain. Do with it what you’d like! Слава Україні.
Astrakhan. View from the south side of the Admiralteyskaya street through Swan Lake to the office of Lukoil and the building under construction. It would seem, and here Armani...
Астрахань. Вид с южной стороны ул. Адмиралтейской через Лебединое озеро на офис Лукойл и строящееся здание. Казалось бы, причем здесь Армани...
RA-65943 Tupolev TU-134A-3 Kolavia. Ex Malev HA-LBR and Lukoil Avia EW-65943. Kolavia was named MetroJet in 2013.
VP-CLO - Dassault Falcon 900EX - Global Jet Concept (untitled - operated for Lukoil Avia)
at Duesselorf International Airport (DUS)
c/n 90 - built in 2001
(Photo: G. Dickmann)
Bye-bye shell, I will remember your nice yellow stations, good gasoline and hot dogs. R.I.P. Let's go for more suicide sanctions!
Naryan-Mar (Russian: Нарья́н-Мар; Nenets: Няръянa марˮ, Nyar'yana marq, literally "red town") is a sea and river port town and the administrative center of Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Russia. The town is situated on the right bank of the Pechora River, 110 kilometers (68 mi) upstream from the river's mouth, on the Barents Sea. Naryan-Mar lies north of the Arctic Circle. Population: 21,658 (2010 Census); 18,611 (2002 Census); 20,182 (1989 Census); 17,000 (1973). About half of the population of Nenetsia lives in the city.
Industrial development in the area around Naryan-Mar began in 1930, in the course of the first five-year plan of the Soviet Union. The growth of the region was the direct result of the development of the Pechora coalfield and the construction of related industrial infrastructure.
Naryan-Mar was for many years a center of the lumber industry, and possesses several large, and currently defunct, lumber mills. At present, the biggest employer in the town is the petroleum company LUKoil.
The town's importance derives from being the only developed commercial port in an area of several thousand square miles. As a result, Naryan-Mar has a reasonably well developed tourist and hospitality services, with several saunas and hotels. The town also hosts a local museum, a large World War II memorial, an Orthodox church, and a historic district which predates the foundation of the modern city. Sports fishing is also possible in the area.
This Fiat truck cabin was presented in 1970, five years before Iveco officially was found. In January 1975 Fiat Veicoli Industriali merged with OM, Unic and Magirus-Deutz to form Iveco.
This is a special Viberti 4-axle conversion.
Note these characteristic Fiat wheels.
7410 cc L6 Diesel engine.
Performance: 140 bhp.
Production Fiat this cabin series: 1970-1979.
Production Fiat series 684, 697, 619: 1970-1973.
Production Fiat 110/130/180 series: 1973-1979.
Production Fiat 180 this pre-Iveco series: 1973-1975.
Special Italian reg. number for road machinery (type 1992-1994).
Number seen: 3.
Salice (Sicily), car park at Lukoil petrol station, SS640, June 10, 2025.
© 2025 Sander Toonen Halfweg | All Rights Reserved.
Lukoil-Avia
Boeing 737-700(BBJ)
Salzburg - W.A. Mozart (SZG / LOWS) | 06.01.2018 | VP-CLR | B737 | cn 34865
As for the current notional leader of the Free World: he has had a grudge against Zelensky ever since 2019, when during the first Trump administration, the Ukrainian refused to give him any dirt on Biden’s son’s dealings with a Kyiv-based energy company called Burisma; and, for even longer, Trump has had a disgusting man-crush on Vladimir Putin.
Yet Trump’s demand that Ukraine abandon its policy of blowing up Russia’s oil refineries is a repeat of what happened under Biden, and for a similar reason. It seems to have been forgotten that, in April 2024, the Biden administration (with similar lack of success) urged Ukraine to desist from its new campaign of drone attacks on Russia’s refineries. The then US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, publicly criticised them: “Those attacks could have a knock-on effect in terms of the global energy situation.”
The Kremlin was delighted to hear this, and promoted his remarks heavily. As the American military historian Phillips O’Brien then observed: “It is hard to think of a weirder thing for a US defence secretary to say.” Targeting the enemy’s oil facilities is an absolutely standard and vital military strategy, as the US itself demonstrated in the Second World War.
I wrote then that “there is something especially absurd in complaining about Ukraine’s targeting of Russia’s oil industry, when Kyiv is doing the sort of thing the West’s sanctions policy was meant to achieve, but largely failed”.
This was nothing to do with “standing by Ukraine for as long as it takes” and everything to do with being seen to protect the wallets of US domestic consumers. It was the year of the presidential election, and the main theme of Trump’s campaign (when Biden was still insisting he would stand for re-election) was that he would bring down the cost of living. As Bob McNally, a former White House energy advisor, told the FT in the wake of Austin’s cease and desist message to Zelensky: “Nothing terrifies a sitting American president more than a surge in pump prices during an election year.”
During that election Trump repeatedly promised to bring down the gasoline price to “below $2 a gallon”. It was then $3. It is now well over $4. This is the result of Trump’s characteristically reckless war on Iran (itself a confounding of his other election pledge to end wars rather than start ones). Now we are in the season of the midterm elections, in which the Republicans are threatened with the loss of both Houses.
So Trump announced, following a lovely chat on the phone with the poisoner in the Kremlin (“I want to thank President Putin, to be honest”), a sanctions waiver to facilitate the export of Russian diesel; and proclaimed on Truth Social: “Diesel prices for Americans and indeed the world will be coming down in RECORD NUMBERS AND FAST!” Also: “Lower prices for Americans, especially our Great Farmers, Ranchers, and Truckers, is my greatest priority.”
As numerous energy analysts have pointed out, the initial shipment of 300,000 tons Vladimir promised Donald is significantly less than the US consumes in a single day. It’s not even clear Russia has that additional capacity, given the success of Ukraine’s drone attacks on those refineries. Trump, a moral rather than a numerical idiot, must know that. His purpose is only to be able to blame Zelensky for the soaring price of diesel – and to convince American voters that it’s Ukraine’s fault. Apart from those still suffering from true TDS (Trump Deification Syndrome), it’s hard to imagine many electors in the midterms falling for it.
Besides, there is also sufficient awareness among voters of what the effect is of giving financial support to Putin via the sanctions waiver: more money for the Kremlin to spend on the ballistic missiles used to terrorise and murder Ukrainian families. The latest intensification of that campaign began on Putin’s 74th birthday, October 7th, when one such missile killed at least 22 people, including five children, in the city of Pryluky. Or as Vera, our Ukrainian house guest of the past four years (along with her young son) put it to me: “Putin’s slaves did a great terroristic present for him today.”
In the wake of the previous US administration’s alarm at the actual success of Ukraine’s campaign against Russia’s most vital industry and only significant source of export income, Zelensky had remarked in exasperation: “Ukraine’s partners are afraid of Russia losing the war and would like Ukraine to win in a way that Russia does not lose.”
Trump, however, is straightforward in his preference: he has seen Russia for many decades as an unrealised source of profits for his family business, and has long sought to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. It was Russian funds which helped keep his enterprise afloat, after American and European banks stopped lending to it. Even after the annexation of Crimea, Trump proclaimed his delight that he had wonderful Russian contacts “with the top-level people, both oligarchs and generals, and top-of-the-government people”.
Trump’s proclaimed desire for an end to the war in Ukraine is not principally about the American national interest, or even saving lives; it is mostly business. Putin well understands this; so in the most recent talks with Trump’s negotiating team (his friend Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner) the Russian president proposed a deal in which the vast Russian oil company Lukoil would be given sanctions relief via a sale of assets to executives with ties to those negotiators, including Todd Boehly, who has donated millions to Trump’s political causes.
Any thoughts on that, Mr Burnham?
Dominic Lawson, The Daily Telegraph
VP-CLP - Bombardier BD-700-1A10 Global Express XRS - Lukoil (untitled)
at Duesseldorf International Airport (DUS)
c/n 9267 - built in 2007
(Photo: G. Dickmann)
A train of full tanks is on its way to Sofia Airport. The 29 wagons originating from the LukOil refinery near Burgas are hauled by locomotive 46 045 and tailed by locomotive 46 124 and are seen here passing through the inactive junction of Musachevo on the outskirts of the capital.
This is the moment when #12 Rob Huff and #88 Jordi Gene toucket at the kink at the end of the straight at Macau, after this carnage followed. 10 Cars out of 20 failed to finish the race.
C/n 63580 Del 4/81 Hungarian Govt HA-LBR , t/f to Malev 1/88, Lukoil Avia 7/98 EW-65943, Kolavia 7/99 RA-65943, fitted out with VIP interior at Kemble 4/01. retired 2010.
Cu un tren de fier vechi de la Iernut pentru Agigea Nord (export).
With a loaded scrap metal train from Iernut to Agigea Nord (export).
Iernut, Mures, Romania,
29.07.2020