Poland's second-largest refiner Lotos is interested in purchasing Finnish firm Neste Oil's gas stations in Poland and is conducting an analysis of the market, Mariusz Machajewski, vice president of the board at Lotos, told Parkiet.

He did not specify whether the Gdańsk-based group planned to buy the whole chain or only selected locations. Neste owns 106 gas stations in Poland.

However, rival Orlen is also interested in making the purchase, having announced an interest in Neste's assets in July.

The acquisition of Neste would bring Lotos closer to a 10 percent share of the domestic retail market, and would give the company second place in terms of number of gas stations owned in Poland. Presently it sits in fourth, behind Royal Dutch Shell and BP. Orlen is number one.

Analysts estimate that the acquisition of Neste's entire gas-station chain would not cost more than zł.200 million.

Poland A.M.