Local officials expect the German government to extend its trusteeship over a major oil refinery in the east of the country.

The refinery is majority-owned by subsidiaries of Russian state-owned oil company Rosneft and the federal government seized it into trusteeship a few months after Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The trusteeship was set to expire in September but Jörg Steinbach, the state economy minister for Brandenburg, told German news agency DPA that he is "very much assuming that the trusteeship will be extended for another six months."

"I also think this is the right thing to do," he added.

The PCK refinery, located in Schwedt near the Polish border, supplies fuel to large parts of north-eastern Germany.