Despite the fact that the merger between Orlen and Lotos and the fulfillment of the so-called countermeasures imposed by the European Commission turned out to be a masterpiece conducted by Orlen’s management, the Civic Platform’s politicians have not ceased their attacks.
Moreover, even though the agreement with Saudi Aramco about the takeover of 30 percent of shares in one of Lotos’s refineries, and the signing of a deal for 20 million tons of oil annually with the largest oil company in the world means that Russian supply of oil to Poland will be seriously limited, PO politicians continue to accuse the transaction of being pro-Russian.
They believe “it is pro-Russian” due to the sale of 417 Lotos gas stations to Hungarian MOL, which is fulfilling one of the aforementioned countermeasures. Even though in exchange Orlen will receive close to 200 stations in Hungary and Slovakia and Hungarian Lotos stations will be supplied by fuel produced in Poland.
As a result of these transactions, the import of oil to Poland from Russia will decrease severely. Meanwhile, just in 2015 by the end of the PO government the oil supply from Russia comprised 90 percent of the demand of Polish refineries.
In 2020, demand for Russian imports had dropped to 70 percent and following the transaction with the Saudis, Russian imports will comprise just 30 percent of Polish demand.
Russian media have warned of this, writing outright that Russian oil companies have been defeated on the Polish market. Bloomberg analysts have highlighted that Saudi Aramco has “decisively strengthened its position in a region traditionally dominated by Russian oil.”
Meanwhile, PO politicians claim that “PiS has sold Lotos to the Saudis and Russians.”
This is a typical “reversal of vectors” in the situation when PO did nothing to reduce Poland’s dependency on Russian oil supply. When it comes to Russian gas, they have even more “pro-Russian” guilt.
