Croatian oil company INA claims that the agreement with JANAF is non-binding, the company stated as a response to media reports on secret agreement with oil pipeline operator JANAF on exporting domestic crude oil to Hungary.
The statement from the company reads that the INA-JANAF agreement is a non-binding document signed in August 2018 with the goal of creating prerequisites for the adoption of business decisions which ensure greater profitability and the viability of INA’s refining and thereby the whole company.
INA explained that the agreement is signed in the context of its 2023 downstream program, which envisages concentrating crude oil processing in the Rijeka refinery and transforming the Sisak refinery into an industrial hub. The agreement envisaged a better optimization of oil transport between JANAF’s Sisak terminal and INA’s Sisak refinery to enable selling oil at market prices and generating greater economic value.
INA stressed that crude oil from Croatian fields is processed at the Rijeka refinery and part of it is sold at market prices, adding that the Rijeka refinery processed 20 % more oil than before and that the quantities covered Croatia’s needs.
Earlier this week, Croatian media reported that INA has signed an agreement with oil pipeline operator JANAF on transportation of crude oil from INA’s now defunct oil refinery in Sisak to Hungarian refineries for processing. The agreement was signed in 2018 by Minister of Environment Protection and Energy Tomislav Coric, and in 2020 alone, JANAF transported some 247,000 tons of Croatian crude oil from Sisak to Hungary, instead to Rijeka refinery for processing. Crude oil has been delivered to Hungary from Sisak since the summer of 2019, which was the first time that Croatia exported oil from domestic production for processing in foreign refineries.
