INA reported that the company regularly monitored consumption of refinery capacities and optimised and adapted operations to market conditions and other relevant factors.
Considering the drastic fall in oil prices, which weakens profitability of INA's oil and gas exploration and production sector, it is necessary to improve profitability of the refining business so that it can be independent and sustainable, INA said.
In that regard and based on a management decision in keeping with the best industrial practise, production at the Sisak refinery will be temporarily suspended on 14 January as a result of depleted stocks of domestic oil.
This is a regular measure to optimise production and does not mean shutting down the refinery nor reducing the number of employees, INA underscored.
Restarting refining at the Sisak Oil Refinery depends on market conditions and the external environment, and in the meantime production will be concentrated in the more competitive Rijeka Refinery where it is planned that refining will commence in the first half of February, INA said.
The Sisak refinery did not refine throughout 2014 or 2013 and refining was conducted for only two months in 2014 and for five in 2013.
Refinery workers cautioned that even though INA has said it would not close down the Sisak refinery, this option was becoming more likely. Once reserves have been depleted it is highly unlikely that production will be restarted, a representative on behalf of the workers, Predrag Sekulic, said.
"We are prepared for all options... We met with INA's management board today but did not get any satisfactory answers... We are monitoring the situation and will inform the public of any possible industrial action," he said.
Economy Minister Ivan Vrdoljak has said that the management of Croatia's oil and gas company INA had made no decision to shut down the refinery in Sisak, stressing that the government's manoeuvring space in negotiations with the Hungarian oil and gas group MOL and its influence on business decisions in INA had been markedly reduced because of the corruptive agreement that former prime minister Ivo Sanader had signed with MOL.