By Riham Alkousaa and Christoph Steitz
BERLIN/FRANKFURT (Reuters) -The German government extended its trusteeship over the local units of Russia’s Rosneft until March 10 next year in anticipation of a sale of the assets to Qatar, the economy ministry said on Monday.
The official announcement confirms an earlier Reuters report that such a decision had been made.
The future of Rosneft’s German assets, which include a 54.17% stake in the PCK Schwedt refinery, has yet to be resolved after Berlin effectively took control of them following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
A trusteeship that puts Germany in charge of the businesses while leaving ownership with Rosneft has already been extended three times to protect Schwedt’s supply and to give Rosneft time to find a buyer for its stake.
Rosneft’s German activities also include stakes in the MiRo and Bayernoil refineries. Russian media has put the value of Rosneft’s assets in Germany at around $7 billion.
“Rosneft Russia has now credibly stated that a sale of Rosneft Germany is being actively pursued and that this should be completed by the end of the year,” the ministry said.
It added that the sale of the assets would be the most legally secure and fastest way to enable investments in the refineries it held stakes in.
Rosneft was not immediately available to comment.
SALE TO QATAR
A source familiar with the matter said the trusteeship extension was to allow Rosneft to negotiate a sale of its German assets to Qatar, which has a long history of investing in Germany and is the biggest single shareholder in RWE, the country’s biggest power producer.
Due diligence between both parties is ongoing but it could take time to reach a deal, the person said.
The German government last week confirmed regular exchanges had taken place with Qatar regarding investment opportunities over the last three months, without specifying whether a potential purchase of Rosneft assets was among the talking points.
The PCK Schwedt refinery is co-owned by Shell and Eni. In December, Shell announced the sale of its 37.5% stake in the refinery to Britain’s Prax Group.
A separate source close to the matter said that the pending Prax sale seemed to be discouraging other investors from buying into the refinery.
The deal is also the subject of a legal dispute before the Higher Regional Court of Duesseldorf, the source said. The court confirmed a hearing for a case regarding the Prax sale was due on Sept. 18, but declined to give details about the content.
Shell, which last year said it expected the deal to close in the first half of 2024, declined to comment on the sale but said it was working with the Prax Group to complete it.
The Prax Group said it will not be making any further comment until the transaction has been finalised and all regulatory processes have been completed.
Under Germany’s energy security law, Berlin could also opt to expropriate Rosneft Germany if no sale can be agreed, as it did with Gazprom’s local assets when the Russian gas company said it had withdrawn from them in 2022.
(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa and Christoph Steitz; additional reporting by Robert Harvey, Editing by Matthias Williams, Barbara Lewis and Sharon Singleton)
