As of: February 23, 2024, 9:13 a.m
By: Lisa Mayerhofer
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Rosneft is the majority owner of the PCK refinery in Schwedt, Brandenburg.
© Patrick Pleul/dpa
The supply of millions of consumers in eastern and southern Germany could be at risk due to the dispute over Rosneft shares.
The government is examining whether there should be expropriation - time is running out.
Berlin - The supply of millions of consumers in eastern and southern Germany could be at risk due to the dispute over the Russian state-owned company Rosneft's shares in German refineries, the Ministry of Economic Affairs warns.
If the PCK refinery in Brandenburg, in which Rosneft is the main shareholder, were to fail, there would be a monthly shortage of 300,000 tons of diesel and heating oil in the greater Berlin and Brandenburg area, according to a report from the ministry to the Energy Committee in the Bundestag, which was obtained by the German Press Agency is present.
An additional loss of Rosneft Germany's shares in the Miro and Bayernoil refineries would result in a further 210,000 tons of diesel and heating oil missing per month.
“It would not be possible to procure and transport these shortages at short notice,” says the document dated Wednesday.
“As a result, there would be a high risk of supply bottlenecks in the east and south of Germany.”
Ministry examines Rosneft expropriation
The ministry is currently examining whether there should be an expropriation of Rosneft's shares in the three refineries.
In September 2022, the federal government placed the German Rosneft subsidiaries under trust management and thus brought them under its control in order to secure supplies despite not using Russian oil because of the war in Ukraine.
However, the escrow solution expires on March 10th.
“The federal government is therefore examining options for further action,” says the report.
Without government intervention, the operations of Rosneft Germany and its affiliated refineries Miro, Bayernoil and PCK could be affected.
If PCK were controlled by Russia, suppliers, customers, service providers and banks could withdraw, which could lead to the cessation of operations.
“As market forces cannot solve this problem, further government intervention is required.”
Rosneft shares: various possibilities for the future
There are various ways in which the Rosneft shares could be dealt with.
A further temporary extension of the trust administration would be possible, but the ministry emphasizes that a long-term solution is required.
A hearing was therefore initiated, but this does not yet mean a decision for expropriation.
The deadline for the hearing is Friday (February 23, 2024).
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Jörg Steinbach, Economics Minister of Brandenburg, has explained that other solutions are also conceivable in addition to expropriation.
It could be that Rosneft itself is interested in selling its shares.
Rosneft holds 54 percent of PCK in Schwedt, 24 percent of the Miro refinery in Karlsruhe and around 28.6 percent of Bayernoil, based in Neustadt an der Donau.
There are already interested parties in Rosneft shares
However, there is varying information about the Russians' willingness to sell,
Handelsblatt
reports .
Although Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin sought contact with the federal government, the Russian side is said to have always backed down as soon as it became concrete.
Nevertheless, there are already interested parties who could take over the share of the German Rosneft subsidiaries, for example in PCK Schwedt.
According to
Handelsblatt,
these include the Polish Orlen Group and the Kazakh oil company Kazmunaygas.
With material from dpa