PKN Orlen looks to foreign markets to sell increased production

The country's top fuels group PKN Orlen wants to enter the German and Czech markets to ensure it can sell its planned increase in refining and pet rochemical output. Orlen - which has so far failed to secure a major c ross-border acquisition deal - is interested in buying some of the Ger man-based fuel stations which Britain's BP must sell under an anti-cartel ruling stemming from its buy of Veba Oel group. The Polish refining-t o-retailing group also wants to put in an independent bid for Czech chemical and fuels holding Unipetrol whose sale was relaunched this week. The r egional acquisition push comes hand-in-hand with Orlen's bid for its key domestic rival Rafineria Gdanska which, if successful, will give it a strong exporting edge as well as boosting its refining capacity to substantially above local market needs. In related news, PKN Orlen yesterday blasted plans to force fuel firms to boost sales of biofuels to well above levels proposed by the European Union. Poland's powerful farming lobby has already pushed the biofuels bill though the lower house of parliament and the controversial regulation has now been passed on to the Senate. The bill - which aims to create new demand for crops such as rapeseed to help struggling farmers - would set an obligatory minimum level of 4.5% of total domestic fuel sales for biofuels. The EU wants a 2% minimum level of biofuels as a proportion of all fuels by 2005, gradually reaching 5.75% of all fuels sold by 2010. (Reuters) A.Z.