The federal grid regulator will become the temporary trustee of Germany’s Rosneft and its stake in refineries in Schwedt, near Berlin, Karlsruhe and Vohburg, Bavaria, the German Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Friday. Germany’s Rosneft is the country’s largest single oil refiner, accounting for about 12% of its crude oil processing capacity. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will on Friday announce further details of a package to support the Schwedt refinery and “ensure that oil supplies can be secured through alternative routes,” the statement said. The refinery on the Polish border, vital for supplying gasoline to the Berlin-Brandenburg region, has until now been dependent on supplies via the Soviet-era Druzhba (“friendship”) pipeline, which carries Russian oil through Ukraine to Europe. After months of wrangling, the EU agreed in May to a partial ban on Russian oil, aimed at cutting off funding to the Kremlin’s war machine. According to European Council President Charles Michel, three-quarters of Russian oil imports will be affected immediately, rising to 90% by the end of the year. Subscribe to Business Today Get ready for the business day – we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. In a concession to Hungary, Druzhba was exempted from the EU embargo, but Germany and Poland have indicated their intention to stop using the pipeline for oil deliveries from the end of the year.
