Fate of the Sisak refinery is becoming a major political issue.
MOST leader and incoming Speaker of Parliament Božo Petrov said on Monday that his party would demand sanctions for those responsible for transportation of crude oil from a storage facility at Graberje Ivanečko to a refinery in Rijeka without the knowledge of Croatian members of the INA Board of Directors and Supervisory Board, reports Novi List on October 10, 2016.
“We will demand sanctions and do everything we can to prevent such things from happening ever again. This just demonstrated how MOL perceives Croatia. For us, they are not, at least judging by this act, our partners, let alone strategic partners, if they are trying to take advantage of this situation due to a new government being formed”, said Petrov.
On Saturday early morning, 600 tons of crude oil were taken from Graberje Ivanečko to the INA refinery in Rijeka. Until now, Croatian oil was normally processed at the Sisak refinery. There are allegations that MOL, which is the dominant owner of INA, wants to close the refinery in Sisak and move all production to Rijeka, which would represent an economic disaster for Sisak, which is already one of the socially most distressed towns in Croatia.
Outgoing Economy Minister Tomislav Panenić (MOST) also spoke against the transport. He confirmed that he was informed about the transport too late to be able to do anything.
INA announced in a statement that it wanted to test the system of transportation of crude oil by rail and therefore organized the transport of 600 tons of crude oil from the storage facility in Graberje Ivanečko to Rijeka. “We have fully tested the possibilities for loading, transport, unloading and storage of Croatian crude oil at the Rijeka refinery, which could be used in the future to ensure the flexibility of processing of Croatian oil”, said INA.
They added that their goal was to ensure the stability of supply in Croatia. “This test was held following the fulfillment of all the technical and operational preconditions. In addition, logistics matters connected with raw materials and final products are an operational issue, and not something for shareholders to decide”, said INA.
INA noted that the Sisak refinery would continue to process oil starting from 25 October.
