The corporation is a significant European publicly traded firm with operations in Poland as well as Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Pakistan, and Slovakia.

After said merger, the company was renamed Polski Koncern Naftowy (PKN), with Orlen added several months later as the consortium's brand name.

The scandal was unearthed with the arrest on 7 February 2002 by the UOP (Office for State Protection) of Andrzej Modrzejewski, then CEO of PKN Orlen.

[10] 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.

In January 2003, PKN Orlen and MOL signed a Memorandum of Understanding whereby they agreed intention to initiate co-operation in the Central and Eastern European oil sector.

[13] In July 2003, the Croatian INA refinery was sold for $505 million to PKN Orlen's competitor, the Hungarian oil company MOL.

The sale was part of a drive by Unipetrol to divest non-core assets and to focus on petrochemical, oil refinery and fuel retailing business.

In 2013, PKN Orlen and Klaipedos Nafta oil terminal negotiated the co-operation on a new pipeline supported by the Lithuanian government.

[30] This decision was met with criticism from Polish Ombudsman, Adam Bodnar, who expressed his concern about the risk to freedom of speech that this takeover poses as PKN Orlen is a state-owned company and the constitutional right to press freedom excludes the possibility of political influence on the press, even an indirect one.

[32][33] On 14 July 2020, PKN Orlen announced its intention to take over PGNiG, and on 10 May 2021, it submitted a takeover application to the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.

[38] In September 2021, the company entered the parcel locker sector with the launch of Orlen Paczka in co-operation with Poczta Polska.

The sale was the result of the European Commission requiring PKN Orlen to divest its assets in order to approve the company's acquisition of Grupa Lotos in accordance with EU competition law.

[41] In the same month, Ukrainian oil company Ukrnafta signed a contract with PKN Orlen to allow the latter to export petrochemical products to Ukraine.

[44] In August 2023, the company's supervisory board conditionally approved an investment in an off-shore wind farm located on the Baltic Sea.

The joint project between Orlen and Northland Power is aimed at achieving the company's goal of generating 9 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030.

The Baltic Power farm, located about 23 km off the coast, will consist of 76 wind turbines with a capacity of 15 MW each, providing energy to over 1.5 million households upon completion in 2026.

[45] In December 2023, the Polish government approved the construction of 24 new small modular reactor (SMR) units in six sites across the country.