Statement
In the reportage “Ciało Obce” by Szymon Jadczak and Łukasz Frątczak, aired on the program “Czarno na Białym” on December 11, 2024, and the material based on it aired on the program “Fakty”, on the TVN channel, at 7 p.m. on the same day, and an article by the same authors in Wirtualna Polska, false information about Synthos appeared.
1. The thesis that the butadiene installation of Synthos (a company with exclusively Polish capital) on the grounds of the Płock plants of Orlen, is a “foreign body” in the infrastructure of Orlen, and to suggest in the material that the project is “sabotage” is pejorative and untrue. This form of cooperation is common in the petrochemical industry both in Poland and around the world. Other private companies, such as Basell Orlen Polyolefins with foreign capital, a joint venture between Orlen and an Amsterdam-registered company, have been operating at Orlen’s Płock site for many years. This entity is a customer of propylene and ethylene, located inside Orlen’s main plant – technologically connected by pipelines with Olefins II – but for the authors of the reportage this entity is not a “foreign body”. The thesis of the TVN “expert”, nota bene a former employee of Basell Orlen Polyolefins, that no one in the world uses such solutions is untrue. The exact opposite is true, such solutions are widely used. In the immediate vicinity in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, France. Independently for 14 years in the Czech Republic, Synthos shares a location with Orlen in Kralupy, in addition, the companies have established a joint venture and built a butadiene plant together.
2. Synthos is not the “sole beneficiary of the investment” of Orlen, on the contrary, it is Synthos’ investment that expands the value chain for Orlen and allows it to increase the return on this investment. Synthos will invest 800 million PLN in the butadiene plant, significantly exceeding the budget and taking on the full financial risk. Despite the opinion of the authors of the TVN material that this is “insignificant money,” from the point of view of Synthos’ owner, it is private and huge.
3. The contractual penalties in the mentioned agreement, described in the report, apply equally to each party. If it was Synthos that violated the terms of the contract and failed to carry out the 800 million investment on time, Orlen could impose analogous penalties on Synthos. The agreement between Synthos and Orlen is symmetrical.
4. The thesis of Orlen’s dependence on Synthos is factually incorrect. Synthos has been receiving practically all of Orlen’s annual production from the currently operating butadiene unit in Płock for almost 20 years. Why is this the case? Synthos is the leading player on the butadiene market in Europe – accounting for about 30% of annual European butadiene consumption – and is a natural partner for many petrochemical companies. We emphasize, it is Orlen that has a market for its product largely thanks to Synthos, and Synthos appreciates the mutually beneficial long-term cooperation with Orlen.
5. The claim that “by sectionalize and leasing a plot of land in the middle of Olefins III, Orlen has de facto made the operation of all these Olefins dependent on the operation of the Synthos installation” is untrue. Orlen’s (cracker) installation has a mechanism to hydrogenate the C4 fraction and return it back to the cracker, making it independent of the operation of the buatadiene installation. It is Synthos that is fully dependent on the production of the cracker; stopping the operation of the cracker means stopping the production of butadiene. Orlen, both technologically and legally, is secured by long-term contracts according to market standards.
6. Synthos will complete its investment in 2025 and build a state-of-the-art plant. Synthos was, and is, a reliable and responsible partner of Orlen and other petrochemical companies worldwide.
Synthos is a global leader in synthetic rubber production with the most technologically advanced portfolio. Supplier to all the world’s largest tire manufacturers. Synthos is number one in the European market for insulation materials. Proudly represents Poland on the global markets.
Zbigniew Warmuz
CEO, Synthos S.A.
