The firm was created through the merger of two state-run petrochemical firms: C.P.N., Communist Poland's petroleum retail monopoly and Petrochemia Płock, the state firm in charge of the oil refineries in Płock, the largest complex of its kind in Poland. After the merger of CPN and Petrochemia Płock in 1999, the company was renamed as Polski Koncern Naftowy, with Orlen added several months later as the consortium's brand name. The new name is derived from Orl- for "orzeł" and its adjective "orli", and -en for "energia".
In 1999, both firms were partially privatized and merged to create a retail and refining company under the name PKN Orlen. Orlengate is the biggest corruption scandal in the modern political history of Poland. The scandal started with the arrest on 7 February 2002 by the UOP of Andrzej Modrzejewski, the CEO of PKN Orlen. He was accused of insider trading and disclosure of confidential information. Zbigniew Wrobel directly succeeded as CEO and proposed in December 2002 $160 million for the purchase of 295 German gas stations from the British BP PLC. It was the first step in Wrobel´s strategy of expanding west. At this time PKN Orlen was Poland´s largest company, with sales of $7.2 billion.
International Expansions (2003-2014)
After losses in 2000 and 2001 the fund returned 25% in 2002. Until July 2003 it grew by nearly one-third since March and in total the fund was up by about 60% since the start in 1994. In 2003 PKN Orlen had the chance to acquire 500 filling stations in Northern Germany from BP under premise of an anti-competition rule when BP took over Aral. As of 2007 PKN Orlen has 581 filling stations in Germany. In January 2003 PKN Orlen and MOL signed a Memorandum of Understanding whereby they agreed intention to initiate co-operation in the Central and Eastern European oil sector. They hoped that the collaboration would allow them both to benefit from the synergies and to compete more effectively in the global competition. In July 2003 the Croatian INA refinery was sold for $505 million to PKN Orlen´s competitor, the Hungarian oil company MOL. This strengthen MOL´s position in the battle for control of Central Europeans and Balkan fuel markets. Furthermore PKN Orlen was involved in merger talks with MOL Group in 2005. If merged, the two firms would have created a regional giant, and controlled much of Central Europe's oil industry. However, the planned merger failed due to high politicization. Following the dropped merger plans, PKN Orlen bought a majority stake in CzechUnipetrol. During May 2006, the company announced its largest investment ever when it took over a majority share of 84.3% of Lithuania'sMažeikių Nafta, the largest company in the Baltic States. It was partly bought from Yukos and partly from the Lithuanian government in December. Earlier on October 12 a fire damaged the Mažeikių refinery, which caused a loss about $75 million. With the completion of the takeover, PKN Orlen became Central Europe's largest company. In May 2007 after Lithuania sold its refinery to PKN Orlen, Russian government approved the construction of a new $2 billion pipeline, that passes Belarus and Lithuania. In 2007 the unit of Polish oil group PKN Orlen PKNA.WA and Dwory Chemicals bought a synthetic rubber company Kaucuk from Czech oil group Unipetrol UNPEsp.PR. The sale was part of a drive by Unipetrol to divest non-core assets and to focus on petrochemical, oil refinery and fuel retailing business. In 2010 PKN Orlen had a reported revenue of $28.8 billion. Next year it was the largest fuel retailer in Poland with over 2000 locations. The company ran the most advanced and the second largest complex for terephthalic acid production in Europe. In 2013 PKN Orlen and Klaipedos Nafta oil terminal negotiated the co-operation on a new pipeline supported by the Lithuanian government. In order to establish the company in Canada and to become an oil producer PKN Orlen bought the oil and gas company TriOil Resources Ltd for $169 million in September 2013. After its first foreign expansion the company acquired Birchill Exploration Ltd due to double its production in May 2014. PKN Orlen, under a joint venture with the Netherlands firm Basell, also owns Poland's largest plastics company.
In 2019 PKN Orlen sponsored Wiliams Racing and driver Robert Kubica in Formula One with 10 million Euro. After Kubica's move to Alfa Romeo Racing in 2020, the Polish petrol retailer became the co-title sponsor of the team. In 2019, PKN Orlen opened its first petrol station in Slovakia through its Czech subsidiary Unipetrol under the Benzina brand. Orlen has been implementing a development strategy since 2018, which involves transforming the company into a multi-energy group. In April 2020, PKN Orlen acquired 80% of Energa SA shares, and on July 14, 2020 announced that it obtained permission the European Commission's for the takeover of Lotos. The next goal is to take over the gas company PGNiG.
Brands and subsidiaries of Grupa Orlen (PKN Orlen Group)
