Scholz sees a future for the refinery: Rosneft defends itself against trust management

The federal government withdraws control of the PCK refinery from Rosneft and spreads confidence in the Schwedt company. The Russian group does not want to accept this.

Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz sees good prospects for the PCK refinery in Schwedt. The SPD politician made that clear in the evening at a staff meeting in the Brandenburg city.

The federal government had previously announced that the majority owners of the PCK refinery – two subsidiaries of the Russian state-owned company Rosneft – would be placed under trusteeship by the Federal Network Agency and thus under state control. Rosneft does not want to accept that.

A billion in investments

Scholz, Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) and Brandenburg’s Prime Minister Dietmar Woidke (SPD) explained the package of measures yesterday in Berlin. The chancellor announced one billion euros in investments as part of a package for the future. The location and the jobs are thus secured. Nobody in the PCK refinery has to worry about their jobs.

On the fringes of the staff meeting in Schwedt, Scholz said that the company had a long tradition associated with many stories. “That’s why today’s message is: There will also be a time for the future. Oil will be processed here for a long time,” said Scholz. But also with a view to the development towards a climate-neutral economy, there will be work here that “corresponds to what has been done so far. That is an important message”.

Woidke and Habeck’s State Secretary Michael Kellner were also on site in Schwedt on Friday evening. PCK has around 1200 employees and is an economic pillar of the region around Schwedt. The refinery supplies fuel to much of the Northeast.

Rosneft speaks of “forced expropriation”

The background to the trusteeship is the oil embargo against Russia because of the Ukraine war, which came into effect on January 1st. At the EU level, Germany has committed itself to refraining from Russian pipeline oil. Until now, PCK has been supplied with Russian oil via the Druzhba pipeline. Alternatively, among other things, oil coming from Rostock is to be processed in Schwedt.

Rosneft accused the federal government of “forced expropriation” of its German subsidiaries. In a statement in Moscow in the evening, the company spoke of “illegal” access to its assets and announced that it would take legal action against Berlin’s action to protect its assets.

“Rosneft sees this as a violation of all the fundamental principles of the market economy, the civilized foundations of a modern society built on the principle of the inviolability of private property,” the statement said. The group emphasized that it had fulfilled its obligations at all times. Further investments and projects were also planned. The group put the previous investments in Germany at 4.6 billion euros.

Federal Government Commissioner for Eastern Europe optimistic

At the same time, Rosneft made it clear that the Berlin decision meant that it was no longer possible to “guarantee the industrial and ecological safety of the plant”. The group is also ready to negotiate a possible new contract – on condition that there is a guarantee for payment for oil deliveries, for investments and the rights of the company’s employees.

The federal government’s Eastern Commissioner, Carsten Schneider, said that with Rosneft there had been no further progress at the location. Business partners have withdrawn, on the other hand Rosneft has not released large, fallow areas for other investors, the SPD politician told the editorial network Germany.

With the decision of the federal government, he now sees a perspective for Schwedt. “I even dare to predict that in a few years there will be significantly more jobs in Schwedt than there are today,” he said. When asked whether he could tell the employees in good conscience that they had a professional future, the Eastern Commissioner replied: “Definitely yes!”.