The future is foreign

In an interview with Reuters, Igor Chalupec said that the company should look for a global partner and the government should sell its stake in the company.

"PKN should eventually become private. There is no need for the state to have a stake in a company that has refineries and petrol stations but no strategic [pipeline] assets," he said. He also said the company was revising its strategy for 2006-2009 to include "more ambitious" financial targets.

"There are two ways for us to have a global partner. One possibility is that a foreign company could buy a majority stake or a large minority holding," said Chalupec. "The other way is that for certain projects we create a strategic partnership with a foreign firm ... We can also imagine a situation where in the area of oil exploration we would also like to carry out projects with foreign companies."

The government is unwilling to further privatize PKN Orlen, in which it owns 33 percent, but has considered merging it with Lotos. Chalupec admitted this idea has merit.

Earlier the government had criticized both PKN and Lotos for possibly abusing their market position. (Reuters)