The Polish energy concern Orlen has changed its head – Kommersant

The meeting of shareholders of Poland’s largest oil refining company Orlen dismissed eight of the nine members of the supervisory board. Vitold Literatsky has been appointed acting head of the concern, reports the RAR agency.

The extraordinary meeting of shareholders took place yesterday, February 6. As the agency clarifies, the change in the composition of the supervisory board was initiated by the Polish State Treasury, which is Orlen’s largest shareholder. In particular, the chairman of the supervisory board, Wojciech Jasinski (was president of the company in 2012–2015), was fired.

On February 1, Orlen’s supervisory board removed the head of the concern, Daniel Obajtek, from the board and removed him from his position. He has headed the company since 2018. This decision was made against the backdrop of an investigation launched by the prosecutor’s office in January into the circumstances of the merger of Orlen and the energy concern Lotus. The investigation believes that this transaction could have caused a loss to the concern; its amount is estimated at 5 billion zlotys ($1.25 billion).

In October 2023 Orlen reported on an agreement under which it will acquire the Polish section of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline. Under the terms of the deal, as Orlen reported, Europol Gaz, which controls the gas pipeline, must buy out the 48% stake owned by Gazprom. The Russian company has been under Polish sanctions since 2022.

Laura Keffer