RoydadNaft –  The operations manager of Lukoil in Bulgaria said insurance costs for oil-carrying ships in the Black Sea have risen in recent months from about $200,000 to $2.5 million per vessel, driving up crude-transport costs and adding pressure on fuel prices in Bulgaria.

According to Roydad Naft, Yevgeny Simeonov, Lukoil’s special commercial manager in Bulgaria, told the country’s national television on Monday that the increase reflects growing risks to commercial shipping after repeated attacks on ships and port infrastructure.

The figures show a 12.5-fold rise in the stated insurance cost, which Simeonov said amounts to an extra $2.3 million per vessel.

The London marine-insurance market earlier in September expanded high-risk reporting requirements for the Black Sea to cover the whole basin. Voyages within the territorial waters of neighboring countries—Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia, and Turkey—remain exempt from those reporting requirements. Reuters reported that the additional war-risk premium adds hundreds of thousands of dollars to shipping costs for seven-day voyages.

The threat has now reached Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone. On October 6, drones attacked two commercial ships, sinking the Togo-flagged Alfa Watan and damaging the Palau-flagged Able. All 18 crew of the Able were rescued, the Associated Press reported.

Bulgarian authorities have not yet identified those behind the attacks. The sinking prompted Syria to call for an independent investigation, as 10 crew members—including nine Syrian nationals—were missing.

Shipping costs were already rising before the October attacks. Bloomberg reported in August that the benchmark daily earnings for tankers on the Novorossiysk-to-Augusta route, based on 135,000-ton crude cargoes, had reached a record $440,948. The figure had risen 140% since early July.

The Burgas refinery in Bulgaria continues to receive crude cargoes. The facility has faced no delivery cancellations and has secured its oil needs through early December, Simeonov said. He also defended Bulgaria’s decision to lift diesel-export limits, arguing that preventing the refinery from selling surplus output in foreign markets could force it to cut crude refining once storage tanks fill.

Diesel production at the refinery exceeds Bulgaria’s domestic use, so limiting diesel exports could lead to lower output of gasoline, jet fuel, and other products, Simeonov said, according to OilPrice.