Rafineria Gdanska, PKN Orlen interested in Petrobaltic

Crude oil refinery Rafineria Gdanska (RG) is interested in taking over the soon-to-be-privatized oil and gas-mining company Petrobaltic, confirmed Pawel Olechnowicz, RG's new chairman. Their main rival for purchasing Petrobaltic is PKN Orlen, a company with much more financial weight. PKN Orlen, which is planning to explore crude oil pools in former Soviet republics, wants to benefit from Petrobaltic's experience in oil mining. RG's chairman claims that his company is a more natural partner for Petrobaltic, not only because they are neighbors. The refinery needs four million tons of crude oil a year and if Petrobaltic doubles its oil drilling it could provide 10% of RG's oil needs. The Treasury Ministry has informed that privatization procedures for Petrobaltic could possibly be ready by June. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 8) A.D.