Bio-fuel producers to blockade Orlen and Lotos

The Association of Domestic Distilleries (ZGP), which groups 150 producers, is demanding that domestic producers of fuels and bio-fuels, in particular PKN Orlen and the Lotos Group, purchase bio-ethanol from Polish producers. According to ZGP roughly 60% of demand for domestic refineries is currently contracted from abroad. "We are not ruling out blocking access roads to Orlen and Lotos refineries. We shall also protest in front of their Warsaw offices and the Sejm," said ZGP chairman Ryszard Wojtasiewicz. However, domestic oil producers see these claims as groundless citing a drive for the lowest possible prices and a respect for EU regulations, which require companies to treat suppliers of all EU countries in the same manner, as the reason behind their decision to source bio-fuels abroad. "If we were treating domestic suppliers of bio-ethanol in a preferential way, we would break the law," said Beata Karpińska of Orlen's press office. (Parkiet, pp. 1, 2, 3) M.M.