In the next five years, INA plans to increase production of oil and gas in Croatia and to increase the output of oil products by about 50 percent.
The Central & Eastern European Gas Conference held in Zagreb was attended by CEO of INA Zoltan Aldott, who spoke about the current situation in the Croatian largest oil company and its plans for the future, reports Večernji List on February 15, 2017.
Aldott said that INA, regardless of the challenges it is experiencing, had invested a lot in recent years. “We are talking about 20 billion kuna, which is almost three billion euros in the last seven years. You might be surprised by what I am going to say, because it will be in stark contrast to what many people say, but I must emphasize that INA, during the period of the past seven years, has been a hero of the Croatian energy sector and of the Croatian economy”, said Aldott, commenting on allegations that MOL, which owns almost half of INA, is trying to destroy it.
Aldott also said that INA today was a modern, efficient, stable and strong company, with low debt and good investment prospects. He added that in the next five years INA plans to increase production of oil and gas in Croatia and increase the production of oil products by about 50 percent.
“Having led the company out of a serious financial and liquidity crisis and the period of high indebtedness in 2008 and 2009, which was a result of the economic crisis and very concentrated and overly aggressive investment strategy, and after in 2011 we lost control over one of the most valuable oil fields in Syria, which at that time generated one-third of our cash flow, the company met negative external shocks which were followed by adverse regulatory decisions that had a negative impact on our business results for the period from 2011 to 2016 – in the cumulative amount of more than 600 million dollars, which affected almost our entire business”, said Aldott.
“Then, in 2014, market prices were halved, which was also affected by the price of crude oil and natural gas. Despite all the aforementioned facts, INA is today a modern, efficient, stable and strong company, with strong cash flow, low indebtedness and good investment prospects and plans for further strengthening of oil and gas industry in Croatia. We are strong, among the strongest companies in Croatia, despite what some people say. Since Croatia is a country with a beautiful coastline and a long tradition of seafaring, we can agree that in the case of INA we can use the old saying that only the rough sea makes a good sailor”, concluded Aldott.
