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Russia-Ukraine Conflict: PCK refinery provides round 90% of oil consumed in Berlin and surrounding area
Schwedt:
The PCK refinery within the German city of Schwedt has been processing crude oil from Russia since earlier than reunification, however with a ban on Russian oil looming its future might be doubtful.
The mass of metallic tubes and canisters within the former East Germany close to the border with Poland employs 1,200 folks, and plenty of native companies rely on the customized it brings to the realm.
“The sense of not understanding what’s going to occur tomorrow is similar to the way it felt after the autumn of the Wall,” stated Buckhard Opitz, 60, who has labored on the plant since 1977 and is a member of the native power staff’ union.
Opitz has not forgotten the financial turbulence that got here with reunification in 1990 — the dismantled industrial websites and painful wave of privatisations.
The Schwedt refinery survived, after a drastic restructuring, as a result of “it was probably the most fashionable, as a result of we have been at all times on high”, Opitz stated.
However since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, uncertainty has as soon as once more descended on the plant.
Though the PCK refinery provides round 90 % of the oil consumed in Berlin and the encompassing area, together with Berlin Brandenburg airport, doubts nonetheless stay.
And the state of affairs is sophisticated by the truth that Russian oil large Rosneft, managed by the Kremlin, is a majority shareholder within the website.
‘Friendship’
Although the EU’s newest bundle of sanctions agreed on Thursday was targeted on coal, European Council President Charles Michel has stated that the EU should impose oil and fuel sanctions “in the end”.
Germany has dominated out a direct embargo on all Russian power, particularly fuel. Nevertheless it goals to finish Russian oil imports by the tip of this 12 months.
Oil pumped in from Russia is the lifeblood of the Schwedt refinery, which is serviced by a department of the Druzhba pipeline, the world’s longest oil pipeline.
The Druzhba undertaking was commissioned within the Nineteen Sixties to move oil from the Soviet Union to Jap Europe and stays a significant supply of crude for a lot of central European refineries.
“Druzhba” means “friendship” in Russian.
In late 2021, Rosneft introduced plans to extend its stake within the PCK refinery from 54 to 92 % by shopping for shares from Shell.
Germany’s Federal Cartel Workplace permitted the transaction a number of days earlier than the outbreak of the struggle however the Economic system Ministry is inspecting whether or not it could nonetheless be stopped.
Rosneft is chaired by Igor Sechin, an oligarch near President Vladimir Putin and who has been the goal of Western sanctions.
“The world was nonetheless regular then. There was no purpose to refuse Russian involvement, simply as there was German involvement in Russia,” Alexander von Gersdorff, a spokesman for the German oil business affiliation En2x, advised AFP.
‘Pure hypothesis’
However Von Gersdorff now has a stark prediction: “With out oil from Russia, the Schwedt refinery must be shut down. There can be no petrol or diesel for Berlin, the encompassing area and western Poland.”
A spokeswoman for the refinery advised AFP it was nonetheless inspecting the “feasibility of various logistical and technological situations in addition to their operational feasibility”.
Some media stories have proposed that Berlin quickly take management of the plant — a measure utilized lately to Russian fuel large Gazprom’s German subsidiary.
However Opitz is satisfied that alternate options to Russian oil might be discovered to maintain the refinery alive.
One other pipeline ending within the German port metropolis of Rostock might obtain crude oil from different elements of the world, he stated, and Poland might provide extra through the port of Gdansk.
Von Gerstoff believes that is “unrealistic”.
Rostock can not accommodate giant sufficient tankers, he stated, whereas Poland wants all its capability to service its personal power wants. Plus the refineries in japanese Germany have been particularly designed to function with Russian crude oil.
However Opitz nonetheless has hope. “All that is pure hypothesis,” he stated. “The ultimate determination will probably be political.”
(Apart from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)
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