ZAGREB, September 7, 2018 – A group of workers at the Sisak oil refinery said on Friday they had documents showing that the management of the INA oil company were preparing two versions of a plan to terminate production at the plant, with January 1 or May 1, 2019 as the dates for the closure of the refinery.
The group said in a statement that this was a renewed form of pressure on the workers, which was prepared while they were on summer holidays.
They asked the government whether it was aware of this plan and whether the Hungarian energy company MOL was taking unilateral decisions without the government’s knowledge, despite the presence of Croatian representatives on the INA board.
They said that if the government knew of this plan, it meant that it had given up on the Sisak refinery and its plan to buy back MOL’s stake in INA. They stressed that they had data showing that the refinery was profitable and that the government had persistently refused to meet with them.
MOL holds a 49.1% stake in INA, while the government controls 44.8%.
The INA management board later said in a press release that the Sisak refinery was generating losses, but that no new decisions had been made. “The Sisak oil refinery is generating hundreds of millions of kuna in losses and the current situation is unsustainable. However, no new decisions have been made as of yet. Should any decision regarding the future of the Sisak refinery be made, we will inform all parties involved, in a timely and responsible fashion.”
