Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on December 16, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
Shell seeks to sell its stake in Germany's Schwedt refinery amid sanctions on Russia, with Liwathon Group showing interest.
By Marek Strzelecki, Christoph Steitz and John O'Donnell
WARSAW/FRANKFURT, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Shell has restarted efforts to sell its stake in Germany's PCK Schwedt oil refinery, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, aiming to exit an asset entangled in Western sanctions on Russia and Berlin's need to secure fuel supplies.
Russian state-controlled Rosneft owns 54.17% of the refinery which provides much of Berlin's fuel, but was stripped of control by Germany after Russia invaded Ukraine and energy ties between Germany and Russia were severed.
Shell opened a data room this month for prospective buyers of the 37.5% it owns in the Schwedt refinery, a year after a previous attempt to sell it to Britain's Prax Group failed, said two of the people.
The global energy firm was seeking offers for the stake by the end of January, one of the sources said.
Shell declined to comment.
LIWATHON GROUP IS INTERESTED
In October, the German government clinched a last-minute deal to exempt the refinery from U.S. sanctions on Rosneft, allowing Schwedt to operate until the end of April under the current license.
Among parties interested in the refinery is Liwathon Group, a privately owned energy trader with oil and refined oil product terminals in Estonia and the Bahamas, said Tibor Fedke, a partner at German law firm Noerr, who regularly advises Liwathon in Germany.
Shell has long been trying to exit Schwedt and in 2021 chose Liwathon group's Austrian unit Alcmene as a buyer, before the war in Ukraine put on hold any deal relating to the refinery.
Liwathon's interest in German investments "includes, among other things, a possible investment in PCK Schwedt, but is not limited to this," said Fedke.
Liwathon had no immediate comment.
GERMANY MUST EXTEND TRUSTEESHIP EVERY SIX MONTHS
The refinery, with capacity to refine around 230,000 barrels per day, has been a problem for the German government, which took control but not ownership of it in 2022, concerned that expropriation could escalate the conflict with Moscow.
Since then, Germany has had to extend trusteeship for the refinery every six months, hoping Rosneft would make good on plans to sell its stake while ensuring security of supply.
(Reporting by Marek Strzelecki, Christoph Steitz and John O'Donnell, editing by Shadia Nasralla and Bernadette Baum)
A refinery is an industrial facility where crude oil is processed and transformed into various petroleum products, including gasoline, diesel, and other fuels.
Energy security refers to the uninterrupted availability of energy sources at an affordable price, ensuring that a country can meet its energy needs.
Corporate governance is the system of rules, practices, and processes by which a company is directed and controlled, focusing on the interests of stakeholders.
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