PKN Orlen (), commonly known as Orlen, is a Polish multinational oil refiner and petrol retailer headquartered in Płock, Poland. The company's subsidiaries include the main oil and gas companies of the Czech Republic and Lithuania, Unipetrol and Orlen Lietuva respecitvely. The corporation is a significant European publicly traded firm with major operations in Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, and the Baltic states as well as an operation in Canada. As of February 2022, the largest shareholder of the company is the Polish state with 49.9% of the shares ahead of Nationale-Nederlanden OFE with 5.2% of the shares. The company is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and, as of 2022, its reported revenue constituted over PLN 278 billion (ca. US$62 billion). It employs over 21,000 people, owns more than 3,000 service stations in five countries and markets its advanced products to over 100 countries worldwide. PKN Orlen is the largest company in Central and Eastern Europe and is listed in global rankings such as Fortune Global 500, Platts TOP250 and Thompson Reuters TOP100. History Foundation (1999) The firm was created through the merger of two state-run petrochemical firms: C.P.N. (Centrala Produktów Naftowych), Communist Poland's petroleum retail monopoly and Petrochemia Płock, the state firm in charge of the oil refineries in Płock, the largest complex of its kind in Poland. After the merger of CPN and Petrochemia Płock in 1999, the company was renamed as Polski Koncern Naftowy (PKN), with Orlen added several months later as the consortium's brand name. The new name is derived from Orl- for "orzeł" (Polish: eagle) and its adjective "orli", and -en for "energia" (Polish: energy). Privatization and Orlengate In 1999, both firms were partially privatized and merged to create a retail and refining company under the name PKN Orlen. Orlengate is the biggest corruption scandal in the modern political history of Poland. The scandal started with the arrest on 7 February 2002 by the UOP (Office for State Protection) of Andrzej Modrzejewski, the CEO of PKN Orlen. He was accused of insider trading and disclosure of confidential information. Zbigniew Wrobel directly succeeded as CEO and proposed in December 2002 $160 million for the purchase of 295 German gas stations from the British BP PLC. It was the first step in Wrobel's strategy of expanding west. At this time PKN Orlen was Poland's largest company, with sales of $7.2 billion. International Expansions (2003-2014) After losses