PKN Orlen considers building oil refinery in Ukraine

According to Rzeczpospolita, the initial offer of constructing a $5 billion refinery in Ukraine by PKN Orlen in cooperation with Azeri Socar was made during the recent visit of PM Donald Tusk to Kiev. This news was confirmed by Orlen's deputy president, Cezary Filipowicz, but he was careful to add that no official documents have been received from the Ukrainian side yet.

The new investment could be located in Brody, where a pipeline transporting Russian oil is already located, but which could deliver the raw material from the Caspian sea in a few years.

The project related to Odessa - Brody - Gdańsk pipeline is supported by the European Union. Part of the connection already exists and only the section connecting Brody with Adamów at the Polish-Belarussian border is missing.

For the time being there is no absolute certainty whether Orlen will participate in the project. "Ukraine is an interesting country for us, but so far in terms of wholesale and retail sales of fuels.

If the refinery project appears we shall consider it. One has to analyze its economic feasibility," said Orlen's president Wojciech Heydel. (Rzeczpospolita, pp. A1, B4) M.M.