For four days, the Federal Administrative Court negotiated Rosneft’s lawsuit against the trust administration of two German subsidiaries. Now a decision has to be made.
The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig today announced its decision on the lawsuit against the trust administration of two German subsidiaries of the Russian oil company Rosneft. With this move, the federal government effectively took control of Rosneft Germany and RN Refining & Marketing last September. The companies are majority owners of the important PCK refinery in Schwedt, Brandenburg. Rosneft found the trustee’s order to be unlawful and has appealed against it.
The Federal Administrative Court had negotiated the lawsuit in detail for a total of four days in February and March. Witnesses were questioned intensively about the situation at the Rosneft subsidiaries. The federal government had justified the order of the trusteeship with an impending threat to the security of supply in the Federal Republic of Germany. The court has jurisdiction in the first and last instance.
According to the Federal Ministry of Economics, the German subsidiaries had considerable problems against the background of the Russian sanctions last summer. Banks and insurance companies have terminated the cooperation or threatened to do so. The Russian parent company wanted to withdraw liquidity. In addition, the German companies had shown no interest in looking for alternatives to the Russian oil from the Druzhba pipeline, which was processed at PCK in Schwedt.
On the other hand, two Rosneft managing directors who had been released since the trusteeship administration had denied in the oral hearing that the companies had insurmountable difficulties. No capital was withdrawn either. In addition, they looked for other sources of oil and were interested in expanding the pipeline from Schwedt to Rostock.
Source: Stern
