ZAGREB, January 21, 2018 – Croatia’s Environment Protection and Energy Minister Tomislav Ćorić on Saturday refuted claims that the decision of the oil and gas group INA to close the fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) plant within the Sisak refinery would pave the way for the cessation of the entire production in the facility in Sisak, and underlined that the entire refining business in Sisak would continue.
“This is not the beginning of the end of the entire production in Sisak,” Ćorić said in his response to criticism from some politicians and unions that the closing of the FCC plant in the Sisak refinery would herald the end of the refinery.
The fact is that the so-called FCC plant will not operate in the coming period, as a result, primarily, of the fact that the business plan of INA for 2018 envisages integration of the refineries in Sisak and Rijeka in the context of the refining business, which would eventually mean the upgrade of business results of INA in the refining segment between 90-100 million kuna, Ćorić told a news conference.
As for possibility that the closing of the FFC plant may result in a maximum 40 layoffs in the second half of the year, as stated by INA itself, Ćorić said that the redundant workers would be offered appropriate redundancy packages or would be employed in some other plants at the refinery.
Concerning the layoffs due to the closure of the FCC plant, INA stated on Friday that a decision will be made by the management which will try to reassign them elsewhere in INA, “while those who cannot be reassigned will receive severance packages significantly above the Croatian average”.
Ćorić said that he had no reason to doubt business moves made by INA’s management and executives.
