Bosnia may expect a fuel shortage as early as this spring, Dnevni Avaz daily quoted the president of the Oil and Oil Products department at the Federation's Chamber of the Economy, Muhidin Alic, as saying on Friday.
He said Bosnia was in this situation only because it completely depended on oil from Croatia.
Bosnia annually imports 1.5 million tonnes of fuel worth about one billion euros and 700,000 tonnes come from Croatia's two refineries, in Rijeka and Sisak.
Fuel is imported mainly via Croatia's INA and Slovenia's Petrol.
INA said a 2007 supply plan had been drawn up for Bosnia and Herzegovina and that no problems were expected despite the announced overhaul.
An oil expert at Bosnia's state Foreign Trade Chamber, Dusko Bogdanovic, confirmed that Bosnia's entire market depended on supplies from Croatia, but said that oil products would be available from other markets, albeit at higher prices.
Bogdanovic said the current situation was yet another reason to think of expediting the overhauling of the oil refinery in Bosanski Brod.
This refinery was offered to the Russian joint stock company "Zarubezhneft" in a package with the petroleum product refinery in the town of Modrica and a chain of petrol stations.
The Russian company said it was interested in the offer provided that guarantees be given before the full activation of the Bosanski Brod refinery that the lower quality products coming from its plants at the moment will be sold on the Bosnian market.
The Council of Ministers said it would seriously consider this demand and that a decision would be made by January 15.
The Bosnian Serb entity's parliament last month greenlighted the sale of the oil refinery in Bosanski Brod to "Zarubezhneft".
The entity's Prime Minister, Milorad Dodik, confirmed that the parliament decided to allow the sale, but no other details were known.
The entity's government earlier announced the sale of the Bosanski Brod refinery in a package with the petroleum product refinery in Modrica and a chain of petrol stations.
On 16 August, a special protocol on the matter was signed in Moscow regulating the Russian company's obligation to pay 42 million euros for the Bosanski Brod plant, 767 million euros for the Modrica plant and 10 million euros for the petrol stations.
The Russian company is also expected to invest an additional 979 million euros for the development and modernisation of production in the next four years.
Dodik told reporters that he was satisfied with the decision, but added that a contract with the Russian partner could not be signed without the approval of the Council of Ministers, the Bosnia's government, about maintaining the current quality of petroleum produced in the above-mentioned plants. However, this means that those petroleum products will not meet European standards as the plant in Bosanski Brod is in a poor condition.