Liberal on Sunday, Fascist on Monday. Hjalmar Schacht is back. According to Business Insider, the German government on Friday, Sept. 16 illegally “seized three oil refineries in the country owned by Russian energy giant Rosneft,” in a desperate effort to deal with a mounting European energy crisis allegedly “stoked by Moscow.” Germany has committed to halting imports of oil from Russia under EU sanctions that come into effect in December.
“This is a far-reaching energy policy decision to protect our country,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz told a news conference to present the government’s plans to put the Schwedt refinery under the control of the Federal Network Agency regulator. “Russia, we have known for some time, is no longer a reliable energy supplier,” Scholz lied. “We did not take this decision lightly, but it was unavoidable.”
The move puts shares of the refineries—PCK Schwedt, MiRo in Karlsruhe, and Bayernoil in Vohburg—under the control of a government agency, said the German Economy Ministry of Robert Habeck (Greens) in a statement. “The trustee administration counteracts the impending threat to the security of the energy supply and lays an important foundation for the preservation and future of the Schwedt location,” it said. The PCK Schwedt refinery “is a major source of fuel for Berlin, Germany’s capital city,” writes Business Insider. Rosneft Deutschland accounts for 12% of Germany’s oil processing capacity, making it one of the biggest oil processing companies in the country, the ministry said. Germany imports crude oil worth several hundred million dollars from Russia each month via its units, it added.
Late Friday, Rosneft said the seizure of its German unit “was illegal and that it will consider all measures to protect ownership of the assets.” Justifying an act of the type described by Sergei Glazyev as “piracy,” the German government embellished the move saying, “The decision is accompanied by a comprehensive package for the future, which will bring a transformation boost to the region and support the refinery, to ensure the supply of oil via alternative delivery routes.”
“That threatened the future operations of the refineries, given their ownership,” according to the ministry. The move comes after Rosneft Oil, Russia’s largest state-run oil company, reported that profits climbed 13% in the first half of 2022 to about 432 billion rubles, or $7.2 billion. “Expensive global crude prices allowed Rosneft to rake in more net income than the prior year despite sanctions from Western nations” aimed “at squeezing Moscow’s ability to fund its war in Ukraine,” complained Business Insider.