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Ursula Patz opposes Russia’s battle on Ukraine. However she can also be firmly in opposition to anti-Moscow sanctions that she says will imperil her city.
“Sanctions that find yourself hurting you extra make no sense,” the 76-year-old mentioned. An oil embargo “gained’t hurt Russia — they’ll simply promote the oil to another person”.
Patz labored for 16 years at an oil refinery within the north-east German city of Schwedt that dangers changing into collateral injury in Europe’s marketing campaign of punitive measures in opposition to Russia.
At problem is the EU’s ban on imports of Russian oil, which is designed to deprive President Vladimir Putin of revenues to fund his war in Ukraine. The measure, which comes into drive on January 1, has broad assist in Germany however has thrown the way forward for Schwedt’s refinery into doubt.
“Individuals right here really feel they’re a pawn that’s being sacrificed in some sport,” mentioned Jens Koeppen, a Christian Democrat MP who represents the city.
At problem is the refinery’s reliance on Russian oil. It sits atop the “Druzhba” pipeline, which carries crude some 4,000km from Almetyevsk in central Russia on to Schwedt. And the plant is configured to work with Russia’s fundamental high-sulphur “Urals” grade of crude.
What complicates issues most, although, is that it’s Russian-owned: the Kremlin-controlled oil firm Rosneft controls 54 per cent of its shares and has little curiosity in processing crude from different sources.
Many in Schwedt worry the refinery, often known as PCK, shall be compelled to shut if it loses access to Russian oil. “That may be a nightmare state of affairs,” mentioned the city’s mayor, Annekathrin Hoppe. “Individuals right here worry for his or her existence.”
Schwedt’s largest employer, PCK has a workforce of 1,200. Tons of extra work in ancillary providers, making pipelines, warmth exchangers, pumps and cooling items for the plant, mentioned Hoppe.
“All these jobs could be affected, and all these individuals have households,” she mentioned. Moreover, “round 80 per cent of the city is equipped with district heating from PCK’s energy plant”. It’s nonetheless unclear, she mentioned, how houses could be heated if it goes out of enterprise.
The individuals of Schwedt worry a repetition of the financial dislocation within the area after German reunification in 1990. “They’re going through a second deindustrialisation of east Germany,” mentioned Koeppen. “They usually gained’t take it mendacity down.”
Schwedt displays the area’s highs and lows. The city was nearly fully destroyed within the Soviet advance in the course of the second world battle. Then within the Nineteen Fifties younger individuals from throughout East Germany converged on Schwedt to rebuild the city and erect the PCK, quick for “petrochemical kombinat” or mix.
Schwedt got here to embody the shut ties between Russia and the GDR. Native newspapers from the Nineteen Sixties conveyed the thrill when PCK was linked to the newly-built Druzhba pipeline in 1963.
“The oil has arrived!” mentioned a front-page headline within the PCK publication “Younger Builder”. “Glory and honour to the builders of the longest pipeline on the earth!”
Druzhba, which continues to supply 1 / 4 of Germany’s crude oil, all the time had optimistic connotations for Patz. “It means friendship in Russian — such a beautiful phrase,” she mentioned. “It means one thing good.”
Quickly after it got here on-line in 1964, PCK established itself because the area’s fundamental provider of petrol, diesel, jet kerosene and gasoline oil. Massive customers — similar to Berlin’s worldwide airport — nonetheless rely upon its merchandise.
So there was widespread anger in Schwedt when Germany signed up for the embargo. Some individuals questioned why it had not adopted the examples of Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, that are additionally linked to Druzhba however negotiated non permanent exemptions from the import ban, citing their lack of options to Russian oil.
“Individuals simply can’t perceive why Germany voluntarily selected this embargo,” mentioned Hoppe. “Everybody condemns this battle, however persons are additionally combating for his or her jobs.”
Discontent has been seized on by populists on the precise and left. The onerous proper Various for Germany has put up posters within the city with the slogan: “If PCK dies, so does Schwedt”.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz insists the federal government is working to safeguard PCK’s future. Officers have promised that it’ll proceed to course of oil subsequent yr and in 2024 and that jobs shall be protected.
To that finish they’re exploring other ways of supplying the refinery, principally by way of a pipeline from the northeastern port of Rostock.
However Koeppen, the MP, mentioned that gained’t remedy the issue. The pipeline can ship solely 19,000 of the 32,000 tonnes a day of oil that PCK wants, he mentioned.
“Rostock port can also be not deep sufficient to simply accept oil tankers,” he mentioned. The oil must be imported into Wilhelmshaven on the North Sea and transferred on to smaller ships, he added. “And we don’t have the ships.”
PCK additionally hopes to obtain oil from Kazakhstan, and is trying into provides by way of the Polish port of Gdansk. “However the Poles say they don’t wish to provide us whereas the plant remains to be owned by Rosneft,” mentioned a employee at PCK, who declined to be named. “And we are able to’t simply brush that apart.”
Longer-term Berlin desires to safe PCK’s future by reworking it right into a “inexperienced refinery”. Two corporations — Enertrag, a wind vitality agency, and Verbio, a biofuels producer that already has operations in Schwedt — have expressed an curiosity in taking stakes in PCK.
Hoppe mentioned with their involvement, the refinery might produce “inexperienced hydrogen” which might be mixed with CO₂ captured from the ambiance to make sustainable artificial fuels — together with “e-kerosene” for planes.
However it’s going to take years for PCK to make the transition. In the meantime, an oil embargo looms that would have fateful short-term penalties for the refinery.
“Three months have handed [since the embargo was agreed] and we’re nonetheless listening to the identical guarantees,” mentioned Hoppe. “Time is operating out.”
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