The vice chairman of Ina's managing board and executive finance director, Zalan Bacs, said that a major part of the projected investments of 2.5 billion dollars for the next five years would go for the streamlining of refineries, research and production, and for the development of the network of petrol stations.
Bacs said that the modernisation of the two refineries was a must and that they had to meet European standards so as to survive.
Sources for the investments will be loans and company funds.
Asked by reporters about Mol's views on Ina's business performance in the gas sector, Bacs said that the situation in which the price of imported gas supplies was lower than the retail price of gas in Croatia should be solved within a suitable time span given that Ina was incurring losses in this segment of its business activities.
According to him, a company whose shares are listed on stock exchanges and which has private owners cannot be forced to have losses in the import of gas.
Bacs declined to comment on his assessments of Ina's business results in 2005 as the company had recently been listed on stock exchanges where stringent business rules were in place.
He announced an annual report for 12 February.
Asked if the policy of provision of Russian oil for Ina's refineries could be risky due to friction between former Soviet countries, Bacs said that Mol, which buys Russian oil for its needs, for the Slovakian Slovnaft and for Ina, could negotiate a more favourable price than those companies, if they negotiated on their own.
Bacs does not expect any major changes in the provision of the Russian oil as problems in oil delivery were neither in the interest of the Russian Federation nor in the interest of transit countries through which the oil is transported.
Ina Group has a dominant position in Croatia in oil and gas exploration and production, oil refining, and distribution of gas and petroleum products. Ina also holds an interest in JANAF d.d., the company which owns and operates the Adria pipeline system.
Mol is Ina's strategic partner and holds 25 plus one of its shares under the July 2003 transaction agreement. With the completion of the transaction, the first step in the privatization of Ina was successfully closed.
In December 2006, another stage in Ina's privatisation was completed when the Croatian government offered at a public auction 15 percent of Ina's shares, with Croatian citizens being entitled to the pre-emptive buying.