The federal government sees good chances of maintaining the PCK refinery with around 1,200 employees in the event of an oil embargo by the European Union against Russia.
"Right from the start, it was always about maintaining this PCK site as a company as fully as possible," said Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) on Monday during a visit to the refinery in front of hundreds of employees.
The preparations for new oil wells via ships via Rostock, for the financing of losses by the federal government and for a possible trust structure - the Russian state-owned company Rosneft is currently the majority owner - are already underway.
"If all three work, then you have job security for the near future.
(...) We need Schwedt."
"We're talking about critical infrastructure here"
However, the Economics Minister repeatedly warned of possible supply bottlenecks.
"So that can also go wrong in different places," said Habeck.
“It will not happen that the whole construct fails as a whole.” He is also looking to the future, not to process more oil.
PCK boss Ralf Schairer said: "We are doing everything to ensure our continued existence." Brandenburg's Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD) demanded: "The supply must work.
We are talking about critical infrastructure here.”
The EU Commission plans to phase out Russian crude oil supplies for Germany and most other EU countries within six months.
The “Druschba” (friendship) pipeline from Russia ends in Schwedt in Brandenburg.
The oil is processed at PCK.