The Polish downstream oil group PKN Orlen (31.14% state-owned) has finalised its merger with PGNiG (71.88% state-owned), the country’s largest gas wholesaler and retailer, active in production, import, storage, distribution and sale of gas. In 2021, PGNiG accounted for 89% of gas sales to end consumers gas sales to end consumers in Poland and for 80% of the volumes sold on the wholesale market. The Polish government is expected to increase its stake in PKN Orlen to at least 50%.
In March 2022, the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK), which implements antimonopoly regulations in the country, conditionally approved the merger between PGNiG and PKN Orlen. Most notably, PGNiG will have to relinquish control over its Polish gas storage unit, to ensure that competition in the Polish gas market is not restricted.
PKN Orlen recently bought another Polish state-owned refiner, Lotos, which owns and operates the 10.5 Mt/year Gdansk refinery, and the power utility Energa, which has an installed capacity of 1.4 GW and supplies electricity to 3.3 m customers in northern Poland. PKN Orlen is active in in oil production, transportation (it operates 1,900 km of oil pipelines in Poland, including 930 km for crude oil and 960 km for oil products), refining (16 Mt/year Plock refinery), wholesale of oil products (12.8 Mt sold in Poland in 2021) and retail (1,840 service stations, i.e., 1/4 of the market in March 2022).