Alcmene eyeing takeover of Germany's Schwedt refinery -Handelsblatt (updated)

Verbio SE

23/05/2022 15:19

(Adds comments from Verbio CEO)
    FRANKFURT, May 23 (Reuters) - Vienna-based Alcmene Group is
interested in taking over the partly Rosneft-owned  ROSN.MM  PCK
Schwedt refinery in eastern Germany, the Handelsblatt business
daily said on Monday.
    Alcmene tried to buy Shell's 37.5% share  SHEL.L  in Schwedt
last year but this was pre-empted by Rosneft which sought to
increase its holding above its 54% stake, a deal that was put on
hold this year by Berlin in the wake of the war in Ukraine.
 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N2OK4GA urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N2X52NV
    Germany's economy ministry is seeking alternative options
for ownership and logistics for the refinery, an important
supplier of transport fuels to Berlin and its
surroundings. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N2OK4GA
    "We are prepared to take over the PCK Schwedt refinery
completely," Alcmene MD Raul Riefler was quoted as saying in an
interview published by Handelsblatt.
    Alcmene officials did not respond to a Reuters request for
comment.
    Handelsblatt also said Leipzig-based biofuel company Verbio
 VBKG.DE  - which refines local crops, oils and dung in the
vicinity of the oil processing operations at Schwedt - was
interested in "refitting" the refinery. 
    Founder and Chief Executive Claus Sauter told Reuters that
Verbio wanted to operate the refinery to widen its activities
and turn it into a carbon-free plant. 
    It would be able to ramp up its current bioethanol,
biodiesel and biomethane output to a level that would utilise
25-30% of the capacity of the refinery's operations, and protect
all its jobs, he said.
    Sauter added that any engagement hinged on the course the
government would take on whether it would continue allowing some
food crops to be used in industry. Germany is reviewing
priorities for food crops in light of grain export problems to
world markets arising from the Ukraine war.   
    The 233,000 barrel-per-day PCK Schwedt is set to cut output
as it stops using Russian oil it receives via the Druzhba
pipeline through Poland and as the European Union plans to
impose an embargo on Russian oil imports. 
    Shell has stopped buying Russian oil.
    

 (Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Miranda Murray and Emelia
Sithole-Matarise)
 ((vera.eckert@thomsonreuters.com; +49 30 2201 33654;
@EckertVera;))