News Post
Croatia Weighs Options for Sisak Refinery
(Reuters) - Croatia is considering shutting down or repurposing one of its two oil refinery sites, newly appointed energy minister Slaven Dobrovic said on Wednesday, implying the government does not expect to secure investment to finance an upgrade of the plant.
Croatia's energy firm INA, jointly owned by the Croatian government and Hungary's energy group MOL, owns two refineries, one in the central town of Sisak and another in the Adriatic port of Rijeka.
Zagreb and MOL have for several years been at odds over management rights and over INA's investment strategy and are involved in two separate international arbitrations aimed at resolving their differences.
"It is a sensitive issue which has to be resolved, but not by harming jobs or laying off employees. It is important to find a healthy solution which would preserve the workforce," Dobrovic told reporters regarding the future of the Sisak refinery.
Croatia has previously voiced dissatisfaction over MOL's reluctance to upgrade the Sisak refinery despite claiming that MOL had agreed to do so in the past. Dobrovic has now suggested that INA's facilities in Sisak will have to be repurposed.
"We are heading towards a post-fossil society," he said. "Consumption of (oil) derivatives is falling and it is unavoidable that some refining capacity will have to be shut down," he said.
He gave no details of other purposes for which the INA site could be used. He said the government would first discuss any plans internally before it involved MOL.
Croatia's conservative-led government took office this month after a snap election on Sept. 11. (Reporting by Igor Ilic, editing by Thomas Escritt and David Evans)
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