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Refinery in Schwedt an der Oder: Before the sale?

Photo: Filip Singer / EPA

The Petrochemical Combine (PCK) Schwedt is a place where the energy crisis after Russia's attack on Ukraine became truly tangible: for decades, the refinery in the Uckermark had processed crude oil from Russia that flowed to Germany via the "Druzhba" pipeline.

Druzhba is Russian for friendship, but this friendship, this delivery relationship, has been over since September 2022.

At that time, the federal government ordered that the Russian oil company Rosneft's majority stake in PCK be placed under trust management by the Federal Network Agency.

The government wanted to prevent more and more contractual partners from inevitably turning away from the refinery, which supplies large parts of northeast Germany and western Poland with fuel and heating oil.

But the trust can only be extended for six months.

Rosneft tried to take action in court.

The Federal Ministry of Economics is now all the more relieved that another solution could emerge: Rosneft Russia has explained that it has started a sales process for the business in Germany and wants to complete it during a further extension of the trust, says Robert Habeck's company.

“We will check that, including further legal safeguards.” However, it is not known to whom Rosneft could sell its stake in the German refineries and at what price.

Time is running out

The situation also seems to be easing somewhat on the legal side.

The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig says that Rosneft will not pursue an ongoing lawsuit against the trust management of the Russian shares in PCK for the time being.

“A suspension order has been issued,” said a spokeswoman.

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The development could have come just in time for the federal government.

The current trust expires on March 10, the Ministry of Economic Affairs announced.

"We are currently examining what further steps will follow." The government could now extend the trust administration again instead of expropriating Rosneft in Brandenburg, as was at least in the meantime.

Experience has shown that expropriation is likely to result in a lawsuit and possible compensation payments from the federal government.

Since switching away from Russian pipeline oil, the refinery in Schwedt has been supplied with petroleum primarily via the Baltic Sea ports in Rostock and Gdansk, Poland, and there are also deliveries from Kazakhstan.

Michael Kellner, the responsible state secretary in the Ministry of Economic Affairs, wants to come to Schwedt next Friday, it is said, "to explain further steps to the workforce."

bem/Reuters