Russian oil giant Rosneft has filed a lawsuit against the German state after Berlin placed its activities under supervision in September amid an energy dispute with Moscow, its lawyers said Friday.
The group “has filed a petition (…) against the Ministry of Economy and Climate, due to the forced trusteeship of its activities in Germany,” said on the social network Linkedin the Malmendier firm, which represents the company.
According to him, the “legal requirements are not met”, because Rosneft “has always fulfilled its commitments in Germany (…) despite the conflict in Ukraine”.
Contacted by AFP, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig (east), seized by Rosneft, confirmed having “received a request” which is currently “being processed”.
Rosneft’s subsidiaries in Germany, which account for 12% of the country’s oil refining capacity, were placed under forced “trust administration” in early September.
In particular, the German government has taken control of the PCK refinery in Schwedt, which supplies the capital Berlin, its airport and the entire surrounding region with fuel.
The objective of the maneuver is to ensure “security of supply” in the midst of the energy standoff with Moscow over the war in Ukraine.
Berlin is committed to ending Russian oil imports by the end of the year, and must ensure that the refinery can continue production from other sources.
Until now, the Schwedt refinery has only processed Russian oil via the Druzhba (“Friendship” in Russian) pipeline.
For the Russian group, a trusteeship “is not an appropriate way” to achieve these goals.
Rosneft says it is ready to “organize alternative deliveries” in line with Berlin’s decision to abandon Russian oil. “Rosneft’s case is different from Gazprom,” the company’s lawyers add.
The Russian group Gazprom, which supplied 55% of the gas imported by Germany before the conflict in Ukraine, has gradually reduced, before stopping its deliveries completely in early September.
Berlin had already taken control in early April of the company’s former German subsidiary, Gazprom Germania, which owned numerous storage and transport infrastructures in the country.
