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Regulators previously
gave Rosneft the go-
ahead to increase its
stake in the refinery.

Germany struggles to get Rosneft

out of Schwedt refinery

GERMANY AS part of its effort to wean itself off Russian oil, The Polish oil major PKN Orlen has also
Berlin is attempting to get Russian state-owned been approached and asked to take on the refin-
oil major Rosneft out of the ownership structure ery, according to Reuters government sources,
of the Schwedt refinery that supplies 90% of the but has not commented on the plans. Poland
capital’s fuel needs. has insisted that Rosneft must be removed from
As bne IntelliNews reported, the German reg- Schwedt before any new operation deal is agreed.
ulator gave the Russian company the go-ahead to Italy’s Eni also owns a 8.33% stake in the
increase its stake in the strategically important plant, but said last month that it is in the process
refinery, the fourth-largest in Germany, to 95% of selling its stake.
the day before the war in Ukraine started. That Rosneft has refused to discuss its ownership
approval has since been withdrawn, but Rosneft or any plans to exit the refinery.
continues to own a 54.17% majority stake in the “It’s not trivial to solve this,” German Econ-
facility. omy Minister Robert Habeck said on June 13
The landlocked refinery draws its crude with regard to Schwedt, as cited by Reuters.
from the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline and has Germany could expropriate the facility on
become hugely profitable thanks to the soaring national security grounds, after national security
prices for oil, coupled with the deep discount on laws were recently updated to allow for expro-
Russian blends of crude, which can be bought priation of energy assets, but that would bring
$35 cheaper than the Brent benchmark prices, the risk of a tit-for-tat retaliation by Russia and
according to calculations by Reuters. the possibility that the Kremlin would cut off
The margins for Leuna and Schwedt are Germany’s gas supplies, something that Berlin
estimated to be at around $50 to $70 a barrel, is very reluctant to risk.
experts told Reuters, which translates into a daily Germany has already increased deliveries of
profit of between $12mn to $16.8mn per day for non-Russian crude to the refinery from Poland,
each refinery, Reuters reports, roughly $8.5mn but these supplies are not yet enough to replace
per day more than a similar-sized North-West the Russian crude.
European refinery which does not process Rus- The Gdansk terminal has capacity to receive
sian oil. 36mn tonnes per year, of which 9mn tpy is not
The problem is that as the refinery’s oil is needed for Poland’s top refinery in Plock and
piped directly from Russia, supplying it with could be sent to Germany through small pipe-
crude from elsewhere is difficult. There are lines that connect the port to the refinery, but
some pipelines running from the port at Gdansk even that cannot satisfy Schwedt’s demand for
in Poland that could be used, and Poland has 24mn tpy of crude.
offered to supply the refinery if a deal to expel Another option under discussion is to truck
Rosneft can be done. crude from Gdansk to Schwedt, which due to the
British oil major Shell has offered to step in cost would have to be a temporary solution.
to run the plant, which owns 37.5% of the refin- New pipelines that could supply the refin-
ery, according to government sources reports ery with crude from Norway, the Middle East,
Reuters, but it is not interested in taking over the US or Africa are on the design table, but are not
refinery permanently nor increasing its stake. expected to appear this year. ™

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