Polish giant Orlen completed the sale of assets to Saudi Aramco and Hungary’s MOL as part of the requirements to complete a merger with smaller Polish state-owned rival Lotos.

As a result of the deal, Aramco acquired a 30% stake in the Gdańsk oil refinery and Lotos’ jet fuel business. Orlen is to retain a 70% stake in the Gdańsk refinery. 

Orlen announced that Aramco is to provide oil supplies that cover nearly half of the refinery’s needs. In turn, the Polish firm is to ensure oil supplies not exclusively to Poland but also to a significant part of Central Europe after the embargo on Russian oil.

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Orlen’s CEO Daniel Obajtek, referred to the contracts signed with the Saudi firm as of “strategic importance for further ensuring supplies to Poland, but also to the entire region.”

“We have built the largest group in Central Europe […] which effectively strengthens current lines of business and develops new ones”, – he wrote on Twitter.  

In the meantime, MOL acquired over 417 petrol stations owned by Lotos. The Hungarian company is now Poland’s third-largest investor in the fuel retail market, behind Orlen and British Petroleum. As a part of the agreement, Orlen also acquired 144 petrol stations from MOL in Hungary and 41 in neighbouring Slovakia. 

From now on, MOL will be buying most of its fuel for its outlets from Polish refineries. 

Image: trójmiasto.pl

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen