The Anglo-Russian TNK-BP organisation has entered the bidding process for Poland's second largest refinery.
The bid, which is non-binding, sees TNK-BP apparently put its recent troubles behind it in an effort to increase its presence in Eastern Europe. The bid is for a 51.19% stake in the Lotos oil company, which owns and runs the refinery. The shares, valued at around €508.6m ($728.5m) are currently owned by the Polish government.
The process was closed to bids at the end of April this year, but TNK-BPs involvement has only recently been revealed, with the company not commenting on the news at this stage.
It is understood that nine other firms have made offers for a share in the 200,000b/d Lotos plant which recently underwent a $2bn facelift. Although the Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, expressed caution over Poland dealing with Russian investors due to its dependence on crude supplies from Russia itself, TNK-BP went ahead, while rivals Rosneft and Gazprom Neft are understood not to have bid. Poland currently consumes almost 5% of Russia's total crude output.