Green light for Rotch Energy and Lukoil to buy RG

Nafta Polska, the state agency responsible for oil sector privatization, rec ommended to the Treasury the sale of a 75% stake in Rafineria Gdanska to Rot ch Energy and Lukoil. According to unofficial sources, the consortium, in wh ich Rotch has a 51% stake and Lukoil 49%, valued the company at $300 million and pledged investments of $500 million to $700 million over five years. Tre asury Minister Wieslaw Kaczmarek has now asked the government to assess poli tical risks connected with the deal. "We need to evaluate potential problems , as this would be the first significant investment with the participation o f a large Russian company in a key sector of our economy," he said. Unoffici al sources close to the government claim that Prime Minister Leszek Miller i s wary of such a move. Kaczmarek said that once the agreement is approved, t he government will seek to finalize it as quickly as possible. "This way we obtain funds to partly finance the restructuring of the industrial chemicals industry," Kaczmarek concluded. (Puls Biznesu, p. 7) T.J.