From the refinery in Bosanski Brod they claim: We have no idea about processing Croatian oil in our facilities

From the oil refinery in Bosanski Brod they claim that they have never considered the issue of the Bosnian oil company processing Croatian oil, writes the Bosnian news agency Patria.

Jutarnji list reported on Wednesday that it possesses secret INA documents stating that this oil company is analyzing and preparing, in strict secrecy, the transport of Croatian oil to foreign addresses, where Croatian oil would be processed instead of at the oil facilities in Sisak, as has been the case so far.

Among the locations where Croatian oil could be processed in the future, along with Serbia and Hungary, the oil refinery in Bosanski Brod is also mentioned.

Jutarnji list reported that their well-informed sources claim that INA had already offered Croatian oil to the refinery in Bosanski Brod at the end of last year. In the meantime, this plan to transport Croatian oil not to Sisak, but to refineries outside Croatia, has been carefully developed.

However, from the oil refinery in Bosanski Brod, i.e., from Optima Group, which owns the refinery in Bosanski Brod, they claim they know nothing about this case.

The head of the marketing department at Optima Group, Svjetlana Bondar, told the Patria agency that Optima Group has neither considered nor is currently considering this type of issue with the oil company INA.

Jutarnji writes that in recent years, the Sisak refinery has only processed Croatian oil, which amounts to about 600,000 tons annually. However, according to further claims by this newspaper, since the available quantities of raw material are significantly smaller than the capacity of the Sisak refinery, the facilities operated intermittently, in the so-called Swing mode, meaning processing is started when 200,000 to 300,000 tons of oil are collected in Sisak, and then temporarily shut down until the next round. Despite such operations, the Sisak refinery, while processing domestic oil, operated positively.

But, Jutarnji further claims, INA is persistently trying to close the refinery in Sisak. It attempted this, the newspaper states, several times last year, hiding data on its profitability and claiming that shutting down Sisak is the only economically rational solution. The resistance from the Croatian side was reportedly too strong, so the intention could not be realized. The facilities were, however, shut down on January 14, allegedly temporarily. However, the article further states, caution is warranted by the fact that INA did not mention processing in Sisak in this year's plan. Likewise, it did not allocate funds for investments or maintenance of the refinery.

Jutarnji writes that energy experts believe this can only be interpreted in one way: the refinery is practically closing, and according to the newspaper's findings, part of the Croatian oil could continue to be processed in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well.