Polish Oil Refiner Eyeing Offshore Wind Farm Partners

Poland's biggest oil refiner PKN Orlen plans to select a partner in the first quarter for its first wind farm project in the Baltic Sea, Deputy Head Patrycja Klarecka said on Thursday. 

For coal-reliant Poland, offshore wind, together with other renewables, is seen as an opportunity to put the energy industry on a greener path. The country has no offshore wind farms at the moment. 

The state-run PKN Orlen wants to have 1.2 gigawatts in offshore wind farms as part of a wider plan to become a multi-energy group. "We plan to start the construction in 2023-2024. We had planned to select a partner by the end of last year. 

However we received very good and similar proposals ... and thus we would like to approach this process in a more advanced way," Klarecka told reporters. "I think that (PKN will select a partner for offshore wind) by the end of the first quarter, at the latest by mid-2020," she added. 

Among Polish companies, which want to build wind power at the Baltic Sea are state-run PGE and private Polenergia . 

(Reporting by Anna Koper; Writing by Agnieszka Barteczko; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)