Refinery in Schwedt
Unimot is interested in PCK shares from Shell
September 25, 2023, 8:31 p.m
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Shell still holds 37.5 percent of the PCK refinery in Schwedt. But that could change soon. According to insiders, the Polish company Unimot, among others, is negotiating with the oil company. Other potential buyers, however, are already out of the question.
According to insiders, the Polish company Unimot is interested in investing in the PCK oil refinery in Schwedt, Brandenburg. Unimot is negotiating with the oil company Shell over its 37.5 percent share, said two people familiar with the matter. Unimot is an interested party, but not the only one. Unimot, Shell and the Federal Ministry of Economics declined to comment.
The majority of the refinery, a good 54 percent, belongs to the Russian company Rosneft, but is managed by the federal government. There was also no comment from Rosneft. Last September, Germany placed the oil processor PCK, which supplies eastern Germany and parts of western Poland with gasoline, under the trusteeship of the Federal Network Agency and justified this with the security of energy supplies.
A lawsuit by Rosneft was rejected in March. In June, the Polish government asked the Ministry of Economic Affairs to step up its efforts to force Rosneft out of the group in order to clear the way for Polish investors.
Unimot is a private company that, among other things, operates gas stations in Poland and other European countries, including Germany. “Unimot is one of the possible buyers of Shell’s stake, but not the only one,” said a government source. Potential buyers from Kazakhstan – the KazMunayGas group and its subsidiary Kaztransoil, however, would not be considered as they cannot guarantee the necessary stability for the refinery in Schwedt, she added.
Until the end of 2022, PCK primarily processed crude oil from Russia. As part of the sanctions imposed because of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the federal government decided to forego Russian oil. Alternatively, oil comes via Gdansk and Rostock as well as from Kazakhstan