State-controlled refiner Orlen will not sell its loss-making Orlen Lietuva refinery in Mažeikiai, Lithuania, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė was apparently told by Polish President Bronisław Komorowski.

“There is no question of selling. I received this assurance from President Komorowski,” Parkiet reported Ms Grybauskaitė as saying on Wednesday.

Orlen has invested a total of $3.7 billion in the refinery since 2006. Its value is presently assessed at $1.6 billion.

“I do not think that someone who knows the business would sell such an asset for about 50 percent less than they spent on it,” said Ms Grybauskaite.

Lithuania considers the Mažeikiai refinery to be a strategic asset because of the number of people it employs and because of the amount of tax it generates for the state budget.

Speculation has abounded that Orlen would sell its Lithuanian refinery after it was revealed that Japanese investment bank Nomura is advising it on what to do with the asset.

“The task of the adviser will be the verification of possible realizations of different scenarios – from upholding the present ownership situation and continued building up of the Lithuanian company's worth, to scenarios of partial or total sale of the shares,” Orlen said in a press statement.