Local officials expect the German government to extend its trusteeship over a major oil refinery in eastern Germany that is majority-owned by subsidiaries of Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft, writes German news agency DPA.
The PCK refinery, located in Schwedt along the German border with Poland, supplies fuel to large parts of north-eastern Germany. Until the end of 2022, the refinery processed primarily crude oil from Russia.
Amid sanctions following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the government took the refinery’s owners – Rosneft Deutschland and RN Refining & Marketing – into trusteeship in September 2022. The German government shifted the refinery to handle oil imported from Kazakhstan via ports along the Baltic Sea coast.
The trusteeship was extended for six months in March but is now set to expire in September. Rosneft unsuccessfully attempted to challenge the trusteeship in court.
“I am very much assuming that the trusteeship will be extended for another six months,” Jörg Steinbach, the state economy minister for Brandenburg, told dpa. “I also think this is the right thing to do.”
The German Economy Ministry did not comment specifically on the question of an extension.
“The trusteeship runs until mid-September,” a spokeswoman told dpa. “I cannot speculate on anything else, including possible ownership issues.”
Steinbach said he also expects oil and gas giant Shell to make a decision soon on whether to sell its 37.5% minority stake in the refinery.
