This is the first strong, positive result in two years, said Aldott.
The significant improvement in the company's business results is mostly owing to increased output in the fields in Syria and the northern Adriatic, said Aldott.
INA has fulfilled all its obligations towards the state and has reduced as much as possible the debt to its suppliers, as well as increased its own indebtedness as a result of payments to the state and investments.
Asked about the value of INA's claims, Executive Director for Finances Andras Huszar said they amounted to more than one billion kuna, and that INA's biggest debtors were Dioki, Croatia Airlines, Zovko and some other companies.
INA is no longer a factor of illiquidity. We hope to collect claims from our clients, we don't want anyone to go bankrupt, he added.
Aldott said the company management would continue implementing its programme to cut operating costs and increase business efficiency.
Compared to power companies, INA is inefficient, it has too many workers, of whom one quarter are in corporate positions, while in similar companies the average is 10 percent, Aldott said.
He said that the company would continue to provide for redundant workers, of whom there are 1,500, including 1,100 in INA and 400 in its subsidiaries.
Asked what INA's management expected from talks between the company's two main shareholders - the Croatian state and the Hungarian oil and gas operator MOL - on INA's gas business, where the company has been continually generating losses, Aldott said that gas business could be pursued if market conditions were met.
Asked how much the price of gas for households would have to go up to meet market conditions, he said that INA sells one cubic metre of gas to distributors at a price of HRK 1.7, and imports it at a price ranging from HRK 2.2 to 2.4.
On the regional market, the price of gas for households is HRK 3-3.5, and the price for households in Croatia should be at least the same as the import price, Aldott said.
He said that a gas pipeline linking Croatia and Hungary, to be put into operation in 2011, was expected to have a positive impact on the gas market in Croatia and increase competition among suppliers, which he said could then affect prices, notably for consumers in the industrial sector.
As for the industrial sector, Aldott said that the medium-term contract with the power company HEP would expire in 2014, and that the contract with Petrokemija, the producer of artificial fertilisers from Kutina, would expire by the end of this year. Talks on a new contract with Petrokemija are under way and the outcome is difficult to predict, he said.
Asked about activities regarding talks on a new contract on gas import with Russia's Gazprom, Aldott said that INA was collecting offers from a number of companies. Along with the price, an important condition is also price flexibility, said Aldott.
Asked to comment on the possibility of a share swap between INA and Podravka in which INA could become involved because of its ownership ties with MOL, Aldott said that neither INA nor its management were in any way connected with Podravka.
(EUR 1 > HRK 7.33)