(Bloomberg) -- Veteran oil industry executive Ireneusz Fafara will take over as the head of Orlen SA amid growing political uncertainty over deals that transformed the refiner into a self-styled national energy champion.

Fafara, who ran Orlen’s Lithuanian unit from 2010 to 2018, will become the Plock, Poland-based company’s chief executive officer, the energy conglomerate said in a regulatory filing on Wednesday. He replaces Daniel Obajtek, who spent six years working closely with Poland’s previous government on an acquisition spree to give Orlen more heft and international clout.

The appointment — made by a revamped Orlen supervisory board after an open two-month recruitment process — is part of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s plan to root out politics from state-controlled companies.

Orlen’s brisk expansion under the previous administration, which boosted the company’s revenue fourfold to about $90 billion last year, wasn’t enough to lure stock buyers, with the shares plummeting 40% during Obajtek’s term. Tusk and his officials haven’t spelled out their vision for the company, saying it’s up to the new managers.

Orlen, which used to focus on oil refining and retail, beefed up its power producing and gas portfolios by acquiring fellow Polish state-run companies Energa SA and PGNiG SA. It has also purchased refiner Grupa Lotos SA, bringing the world’s biggest oil producer Saudi Aramco as a partner in the process. Orlen also became a newspaper owner and distributor, stoking criticism about its political aims under Obajtek.

The acquisition spree has raised questions, with state prosecutors this year initiating several probes into Orlen’s takeover of Lotos as well as its unusually cheap fuel prices before general elections on Oct. 15.

Fafara will decide whether to back the M&A decisions of his predecessors or attempt to reverse at least some of them. He will also oversee a record 320 billion zloty ($82 billion) investment budget for 2023-2030, during which Orlen is set to complete its biggest gas-fired power plant projects as well as Poland’s first offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea.

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