Government explores alternatives to Rosneft expropriation

A spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of Economics declined to comment on the matter. The hearing on a possible expropriation is currently underway and will then be evaluated. 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.

The Federal Ministry of Economics has been examining for several weeks whether Rosneft's shares in the three refineries should be expropriated. The federal government placed the Rosneft subsidiaries under trusteeship in September 2022 and thus brought them under its control. The aim was to secure the supply of fuel despite not using Russian oil due to the war in Ukraine. After being extended several times, the trusteeship expires on March 10.

In the dispute over the Russian state-owned company Rosneft's shares in German refineries, the supply of millions of consumers in eastern and southern Germany is at stake, according to the Federal Ministry of Economics. If the Brandenburg PCK refinery - where Rosneft is the majority shareholder - were to fail, there would be a monthly shortfall of 300,000 tons of diesel and heating oil in the greater Berlin and Brandenburg area, according to a report by the ministry to the energy committee in the Bundestag. A further 210,000 tons of diesel and heating oil per month would be missing if Rosneft Germany's shares in the Miro and Bayernoil refineries were to fail.