Orlen accused of squeezing independent gas stations

"A meeting of the Sejm Economy Commission was called for November 14.Among the participants will be owners of gas stations, ministry officials and representatives of Orlen and Lotos. We want to know whether these problems are indeed taking place and what the reason is," said Maks Kraczkowski, head of the commission. Owners of the gas stations claim they are forced to pay through the nose for the fuel, have to beg for it and usually they end up with nothing. In turn gas stations of the concerns are peaceful and quiet. Orlen claims that with increased demand for diesel, a priority is to carry out contracts and thus it might be the case that someone is refused. "We will prove that shortages stem from dependency of the Polish market on imports, which was related to malfunctions of foreign refineries," said Dawid Piekarz, spokesman of PKN Orlen. (Puls Biznesu, p.14) M.M.