Poland’s state-controlled energy group Orlen has opened talks over taking a stake in Ukrnafta, Ukraine’s largest oil producer belonging to state-owned Naftogaz Group, CEO Ireneusz Fąfara said on Thursday.
Orlen already ranks among the most prominent fuel suppliers to Ukraine, and Fąfara framed a possible Ukrnafta deal as a way to lock that position in for the long term.
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The disclosure may mean another prominent foreign investor in Ukraine’s market.
Polish news agency PAP Biznes reported Fąfara’s comments at a press conference on Thursday.
“We have begun a conversation about the possibility of getting involved in Ukrnafta. We are in the process as one of the partners,” Fąfara said. “Whether this will happen and what form it will take is a matter for negotiation with the Ukrainian side, but I would like to emphasize once again that we are one of the partners in the negotiations.”
Orlen’s Mažeikiai refinery in Lithuania sells almost 18% of its products in Ukraine, Orlen CEO said. Also, Orlen moves around 1.5 million tons of refinery products into Ukraine each year and, since last summer, has shipped roughly one gas tanker a month to the country, he added.
Deliveries are currently paused due to weather conditions, Fafara said, but the company expects to resume in June. “We hope that from June we will start helping our partners to fill their storage facilities,” he said.
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The CEO believes Ukraine will win over Russia in response to the full-scale invasion, opening the doors to investments. “We believe that the war will end and that Ukraine will be the victor,” he said.
“We would like to become more involved in this market than we currently are. We are one of the main partners supplying fuel to Ukraine and we would like to strengthen this position.”
Fafara also flagged interest in North America, pointing to a shift in Canadian liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal infrastructure toward the country’s eastern coast and ongoing developments in the US. He said Orlen is searching for a senior hire with experience in that market, though a selection has not yet been made.
JSC “Ukrnafta” is the largest oil producer in Ukraine and has a full range of services for the petroleum industry. The company includes business units “Ukrnafta East” and “Ukrnafta West” with six oil and gas production divisions and three gas treatment plants; the Oilfield Services Division and the Ukrnafta Drilling Division, engaged in exploration and production drilling.
50%+1% of Ukrnafta belongs to the state-owned Naftogaz Group. The company operates in the Sumy, Poltava, Chernihiv, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Dnipro, and Kharkiv regions of Ukraine, and its gas station network includes 662 filling stations across almost all regions of Ukraine.
As of Sept. 1, 2025, the company produced 1,807 oil and 164 gas wells, the company reported on its website.