MOSCOW (MRC) -- Daniel Obajtek, the CEO of the Polish state-run fuel giant PKN Orlen, has been awarded the title of Man of the Year of the 2020 Economic Forum 2020, now underway in Karpacz, southern Poland, said Thefirstnews.
During the award ceremony held on Tuesday evening during the forum, an annual international conference that brings to Poland top politicians and economic decision makers, a congratulation letter from the head of Poland's ruling party Jaroslaw Kaczynski was read by Deputy PM and State Assets Minister Jacek Sasin.
The PiS leader described Obajtek as "one of the helmsmen of Polish business" and "not only a man of economic success, but also a man of mission." "What he does as the head of Orlen is a mission serving the development of the Republic of Poland and strengthening our position in the international arena," Kaczynski wrote.
In his opinion, Obajtek's and Orlen's activities are part of the strategy to stimulate the Polish economy so as to build "the Polish version of the welfare state". In his thank you for the award, the Orlen CEO pointed to a decision-making process as the key element of business. "At Orlen, we make decisions and look ahead. The acquisitions we make are not to satisfy someone else's ambitions, but are very important for the entire economy," he said.
Obajtek was appointed PKN Orlen CEO in 2018. He has often repeated that it is his mission and goal to build a multi-energy company based on diversified sources of income and profit. Two years ago, he initiated PKN Orlen's merger with another Polish oil company, Lotos. In July 2020, the European Commission issued conditional consent to this takeover. Around the same time Orlen had signed a letter of intent with the State Treasury to gain control over the country's gas monopolist PGNiG. On April 1, 2020, Orlen secured an unconditional consent from the European Commission to take over Polish energy firm Energa.
In 2018, Orlen finalised the purchase of 100 percent of shares in Unipetrol, the largest refining and petrochemical concern in the Czech Republic. Another important element of the company's strategy is investing in the Lithuanian Mazeikiu oil refinery.
As MRC informed earlier, in H1 September 2019, Honeywell announced that PKN ORLEN had licensed the UOP MaxEne process, which can increase production of ethylene and aromatics and improve the flexibility of gasoline production. The project, for the PKN Orlen facility in Plock, Poland, currently is in the basic engineering stage. Honeywell UOP, a leading provider of technologies for the oil and gas industry, first commercialized the UOP MaxEne process in 2013. The process enables refiners and petrochemical producers to direct molecules within the naphtha feed to the processes that deliver the greatest value and improve yields of fuels and petrochemicals.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's DataScope report, PE imports to Russia dropped in January-June 2020 by 7% year on year to 328,000 tonnes. High density polyethylene (HDPE) accounted for the main decrease in imports. At the same time, PP imports into Russia rose in the first six months of 2020 by 21% year on year to 105,300 tonnes. Propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) accounted for the main increase in imports.
PKN Orlen would be the first refining and petrochemicals company in Europe to use the Honeywell UOP MaxEne technology for molecule management of a naphtha stream to produce high-quality products including olefins, aromatics and gasoline.
MRC