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PCK refinery in Schwedt/Oder: What's next for oil processing?
Photo: Patrick Pleul / dpa
Ever since Germany spoke out in favor of a possible oil embargo against Russia, people in Schwedt have been worried about the future.
According to the state government, around 1,200 people work in the local oil refinery PCK, which is majority owned by the Russian state-owned company Rosneft.
What will become of them if the energy comes from other countries in the future?
The federal state of Brandenburg now has some ideas ready: »I see the future in a location with a new, more modern refinery concept using hydrogen as well as corresponding biomaterials.
So a refinery 2.0," said Economics Minister Jörg Steinbach (SPD) to the "Potsdamer Latest News".
He assumes that such a change could take seven to ten years, but it makes sense in any case.
»The transformation is a task that has to be done anyway, because one could assume that in the next ten years the classic concept of a refinery would no longer work.«
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) wants to visit the company on Monday evening to talk to the employees and the management against the background of the oil embargo.
The refinery processes the Russian oil from the Druzhba pipeline (in German: friendship), which ends in Schwedt.
Trust or expropriation?
The federal government, together with the state of Brandenburg, has been looking for alternatives to Russian oil for a long time, which, according to Steinbach, only accounts for up to 70 percent of previous output.
The question of the future owner is still open: with a change in the law, the federal government could place the refinery under state trusteeship or even expropriate it.
As far as the position of former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) on the Rosneft supervisory board is concerned, Brandenburg's Economics Minister answered evasively.
"I do not fully believe in the role that Mr. Schröder has on Rosneft's board of directors," said Steinbach.
That is why he cannot make any statements about what Schröder should or should not do.
rai/dpa