Germany’s nationalization of Rosneft assets will have consequences – Kommersant

Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said that the possible nationalization of Rosneft assets (MOEX: ROSN) in Germany “will cause legal and economic consequences.” He emphasized that there are no negotiations between Moscow and Berlin on this matter, since communication channels “have been destroyed.”

“There are no negotiations between Moscow and Berlin, if you mean the state or government level, we have no contacts. But, nevertheless, the company, of course, protects its interests, using the entire arsenal of legal means that are possible for this, this is corporate protection. While the company itself protects its interests, if something can be done by the state, of course, the state has always protected the interests of our companies, our citizens and will continue to do so,” Mr. Peskov answered a question from Kommersant FM during a conference. colla.

According to him, the actions of Germany and other Western countries “absolutely devalue the investment attractiveness of these countries and, of course, have very profound consequences for those who make such decisions.”

The day before, on February 7, Handelsblatt reported that German authorities are considering the possibility of nationalizing Rosneft Deutschland, a subsidiary of Rosneft. Hearings on the issue of nationalization began on Monday, February 5, the final decision has not yet been made. Law firm “Rosneft” confirmedthat Germany is considering the seizure of the company’s business and lawyers will look for legal opportunities to prevent this.

Rosneft Deutschland manages the company’s shares in oil refineries in Germany: the country’s largest refinery in the city of Karlsruhe (Rosneft’s share is 24%), the PCK Raffinerie plant (54.17%) in Schwedt and BAYERNOIL Raffineriegesellschaft (28.57%) in city ​​of Neustadt an der Donau.

The Schwedt plant supplies petroleum products to most of eastern Germany, including Berlin Airport. Its capacity is 11.6 million tons per year. In November 2021, it was reported that Rosneft was buying out Shell’s 37.5% stake in the PCK refinery in Germany, as a result of which the Russian company’s share in the enterprise was expected to increase from 54.17% to 91.67%. However, the closure of this deal was not announced. Another shareholder of the refinery is Italian Eni with a share of 8.33%, which has begun selling its share. The plant is connected to the Druzhba pipeline system, which previously supplied Russian oil to Germany.

Read more in the article “Kommersant” “Rosneft is turning off Schwedt”.

Alexander Kislov