Poland relaunches Gdańska sale talks

Poland's state fuels agency relaunched parallel talks on the sale of its second-largest refinery Rafineria Gdańska with Hungary's oil and gas group MOL, along with Britain's Rotch Energy, it said last week. Nafta Polska said that if no deal is reached with one of the bidders, the tender for 75% of Gdańska will be annulled, likely leading to the creation of one domestic group with larger peer Polski Koncern Naftowy Orlen (PKN Orlen). A final decision on whether to go ahead or scrap the sale is expected next week. MOL - seeking a foothold on Poland's 38 million consumer market through either a Gdańska buy or a cross-holding with PKN Orlen - had been considered a long-shot for Gdańska after failing to match Rotch's $1 billion-plus bid.

But Nafta, the state agency in charge of fuel sector privatization, has been so far unable to secure financial guarantees by private Rotch for an ambitious investment program to revamp Rafineria Gdańska's refining complex. "We have been unable so far to secure financial guarantees for the project from Rotch Energy and now we will talk to both Rotch and MOL before a final decision is made hopefully next week," said Nafta's chief Maciej Gierej at a news conference. "We hope that by then we will be able to decide to either sell Gdańska to one of the two or annul the tender." Nafta faces pressure to complete or waive Gdańska's sale before it moves to make a final call on ongoing talks with MOL and Austria's OMV to sell a strategic 17.6% in PKN Orlen, central Europe's largest refining group. - Reuters