The German government has renewed its trusteeship of Russian oil company Rosneft’s PCK refinery, sources told dpa on Monday, as Berlin looks ahead to a potential sale of the assets.
Two German subsidiaries of Rosneft were effectively taken control of by Berlin in September 2022, after the government decided to stop Russian oil from being imported following the invasion of Ukraine.
Those two subsidiaries hold a majority stake of 54% in the PCK refinery, located in the eastern German state of Brandenburg.
The trusteeship had been due to expire on September 10, but was extended by another six months.
A possible sale of Rosneft’s shares in the refinery could soon get under way, with the Gulf emirate of Qatar rumoured to be interested in a purchase.
The German government is holding talks on the deal, sources told dpa last week, confirming a report by Business Insider.
The deal would not be made by the German government, but would be a bilateral transaction between Rosneft and Qatar. The German government would scrutinize the deal under the Foreign Trade and Payments Act. Rosneft is thought to be willing to sell.
Brandenburg’s state economics minister, Jörg Steinbach, thinks that Rosneft is seriously interested in selling its majority stake.
He said that such a process generally takes several months. “It would be a particularly fast procedure if we were to receive some form of signal in this regard by the end of the year.”
