INA PURCHASES RUSSIAN OIL COMPANY

MOSCOW, Nov 3 (Hina) - The Croatian oil company INA on Tuesday purchased a Russian oil company, "White Nights", which owns the licence for manufacturing oil and gas on two oil fields in West Siberia. Oil reserves on those two fields are estimated at 10 million tonnes, which increases INA's oil reserves by 75 percent. The purchase contract was signed at the Croatian Embassy in Moscow, by the director of INA's office in Moscow, Pavle Urod, and by Kamil Nasibulaev, general director of the Varyganneftegaz oil company, which is part of one of the leading Russian oil companies - Fidanco. INA general director Davor Stern said that the signed contract increased INA's value in the company's future privatisation. This is the first time INA is buying the already discovered oil reserves. So far, INA has been oriented towards discovering oil fields (i.e. in Egypt, Angola, Libya...). The two purchased oil fields produce about 420,000 tonnes of oil annually, and INA plans to increase this production to 1,000,000 tonnes. The purchased oil fields are directly connected with Croatia's Refinery in Sisak by pipelines. Croatia's Ambassador to Russia Hidajet Biscevic and Economy Minister Nenad Pogres also expressed satisfaction with the contract. (hina) it jn/rml