In recent weeks, we have had a flood of statements from ministers of the Tusk government, in which they openly question the implementation of development investments prepared by the previous government, including strategic investments.
In one of the radio interviews, Minister of Climate Urszula Zielińska stated with disarming honesty that, according to the data available to her, river transport is not profitable, and therefore investments in improving the navigability of the Oder would be a waste of public money. To strengthen the strength of her “arguments” on this issue, she added a kind of “golden idea” that ships and barges floating on rivers take water from fish and therefore cannot swim. It is not clear whether these “arguments” were the decisive factor, but it is already known that the Tusk government has withdrawn from this investment, which will probably also result in the halting of the expansion of the container port in Świnoujście.
Collapsing the atomic design
In turn, another deputy minister of this ministry, Miłosz Motyka, stated that offshore wind turbines will provide more energy than nuclear energy, which means that there is no need to rush to build nuclear power plants. And this is indeed the case: the new minister of the Ministry of Economy, responsible for energy, has announced a delay in the commissioning of the first block of the nuclear power plant from 2034 to 2040, which calls into question the implementation of this project with an American investor.
In fact, the construction of the first offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea was undertaken and significantly advanced by the Orlen Group under the leadership of President Obajtek, but the current coalition is doing everything to weaken this company. At Orlen, we are dealing with paralysis of decision-making, a kind of “witch hunt” is taking place, it turns out that the key to the dismissals is cooperation with the former president, and the consequences of this were already visible after the first quarter. Turnover down by almost 30%. and a profit drop of almost PLN 7 billion even caused panic, data for the second quarter was not published due to the deteriorating financial situation, in early October due to the stock exchange information obligation, so summary data for the first quarter half of the year will be published.
As if that were not enough, in recent days a statement has appeared from the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of State Assets, Robert Kropiwnicki, also supported by the new management of the Orlen Group, about the unprofitability of the Olefina III investment. This is the largest investment in the petrochemical industry in twenty years, not only in Poland, but in the whole of Europe, which is not only intended to achieve the so-called goal of almost 20 percent oil processing, but is also the key to significantly extending the life of the entire refinery.
The costs of implementing this project, especially the infrastructure part, have increased, but this is the case with all investments in this industry in the world due to the consequences of the pandemic and the consequences of the war in Ukraine. Questioning its profitability in the third year of its implementation is not only a blow to the future of the petrochemical industry in Poland, but also clearly in favor of German interests, which are greatly affected by this investment.
German interests
In recent days, there has also been a statement from PERN, responsible for the network of pipelines transporting crude oil through Poland, informing the public that the construction of the second line of the so-called Pomeranian Pipeline has just been suspended. The idea is to build the second line of the pipeline, which would lead from Naftoport in Gdańsk to a connection with the “Przyjaźń” pipeline, which in turn would lead from the border with Belarus to the border with Germany. The connection of both pipelines would take place in the center of our country, in the area of Miszewko Strzałkowskie, where one of the many oil bases managed by PERN is located.
While during the government of Prime Minister Morawiecki this investment was prepared very intensively, as it was intended to ensure the safety of oil supplies to refineries in Poland via Naftoport in Gdańsk, after the formation of Tusk’s government and changes in the authorities of companies responsible for the transportation and processing of oil (including in Orlen and PERN) it suddenly turned out that this investment was no longer needed.
It must be strongly emphasized that his opponents were mainly Germans, who directly claimed that with this investment Poland wanted to force Germany to supply German refineries, but especially the PCK Schwedt refinery, with oil via Gdańsk, thus excluding their supply of oil from Kazakhstan. In fact, however, it is about the possibility of pumping much cheaper ‘Russian’ oil to the Schwedt refinery via the ‘Friendship’ oil pipeline, which is Kazakh oil only on paper, in order to circumvent EU sanctions.
It should be noted that all these – according to Tusk’s ministers – unprofitable investments, although strategic from the point of view of Polish interests, are clearly not beneficial for our western neighbors. Not only do the Germans not want to improve the navigability of the Oder and expand the container port in Świnoujście, build nuclear power plants, expand our petrochemical industry or build the Pomeranian pipeline, but they are also actively fighting them in every possible way. Now they have an ally in this, the government of Donald Tusk, which, as can be seen from the statements of his ministers, does not want these investments to be implemented, and since he cannot communicate this directly to the public, he comes up with pseudo-reasons, including the one about unprofitability.
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– Dworczyk: The current government has thrown Poland’s development dreams in the trash. In return, it offers games, higher prices and exemptions
– Only ‘Russian’ oil can go to Germany, hence the suspension of the expansion of the Pomeranian pipeline
Source: wPolityce