Russian state oil company Rosneft has initiated a new round of legal action against the German government, challenging its decision to place Rosneft's German subsidiary and the majority stake in the PCK Schwedt refinery under long-term trusteeship. A spokesperson for the Berlin-Brandenburg Higher Administrative Court confirmed that Rosneft submitted the lawsuit on March 30 to meet the legal deadline for responding to an order issued by Germany's Ministry for Economic Affairs on February 27.
The core dispute in this lawsuit revolves around the German government's change of the legal basis for the trusteeship. In February, the government reorganized the trusteeship under the Foreign Trade Act, making state control over Rosneft's subsidiary indefinite and removing the previous requirement to renew the trusteeship every six months. Economists and members of the Green Party have criticized the government's use of the new legal framework as legally "high-risk," suggesting it could raise constitutional issues. Rosneft had previously filed a similar lawsuit in 2022 against the initial trusteeship terms but was unsuccessful.
This legal action comes at a time when the PCK Schwedt refinery, which supplies most of Berlin's fuel, is under significant pressure. Russia has announced it will halt supplies of Kazakh crude oil to Germany via the Druzhba pipeline starting May 1, cutting off approximately 17% of the refinery's supply. This move has made reliance on alternative imports, including through the Polish port of Gdańsk, more costly and continues to impact the stability of Germany's energy market.
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