Polish energy company ORLEN has announced the merger of its oil business segments, ORLEN OIL with LOTOS Oil (21 July).
“By combining ORLEN OIL with LOTOS Oil, we are poised to enhance operational efficiency and unlock significant development potential within the lubricants market. In this way, we are building our position as a robust domestic company capable of competing both in Poland and abroad. The integration of assets will produce synergies that will enable us to increase investments and maximise the utilisation of existing resources, thereby strengthening the entire value chain of the ORLEN Group,” says Daniel Obajtek, CEO and President of the ORLEN Management Board.
As part of the merger, all LOTOS Oil assets have been transferred to ORLEN OIL, which now operates four production plants: the facilities in Trzebinia and Jedlicze, and two plants acquired from LOTOS Oil in Czechowice-Dziedzice and Gdańsk. It has a headcount of nearly 700 and its annual lubricant production capacity now stands at around 420,000 tonnes.
Work by ORLEN OIL is currently underway to develop a new integrated product offer. The company will be able to offer Group II base oils once the Hydrocracked Base Oil (HBO) unit in Gdańsk is commissioned. The HBO unit’s annual output will comprise over 400 thousand tonnes of Group II base oils and several dozen thousand tonnes of fuel intermediates.
The HBO project, which is expected to be completed in 2025, is valued at around 1.4 billion euros (315 million euros).
The merger of ORLEN OIL with LOTOS Oil is another step in the consolidation process that began following ORLEN’s acquisition of Grupa LOTOS and PGNiG last year. The companies that have been integrated to date include PGNiG Upstream Norway and LOTOS Exploration & Production Norge, both with upstream operations on the Norwegian Continental Shelf, and LOTOS Kolej and ORLEN KolTrans, active in the rail transport sector.
