The new CEO of PKN Orlen, Piotr Kownacki, has announced that the company's strategy for 2006-2009 will remain unchanged, as Orlen's priorities will be the consolidation of foreign assets and acquisition of access to oil deposits –according to Polish daily Parkiet.
Orlen will now have to cope with the results of the October fire in the Lithuanian refinery and shortages in deliveries of oil from Russia. The installation which was exluded from use due to the fire will be restored and re-launched within a month, which will significantly lower the $7-8 million monthly losses according to Mazeikiu's Managing Director, Paul Nelson English.
Our view: We see the reiteration of the company's strategy by the new CEO as neutral. However, we see the news about the earlier restart of Mazeikiu's damaged installations as positive. Earlier PKN indicated that the full repair will take up to 6-9 months (will not be finished earlier than beginning of the summer 2007). We see it positively that the monthly losses can be tuned down.