Commenting on the decision by federal Prime Minister Ahmed Hadzipasic of Thursday to send an open letter to the federal parliament urging it to assume responsibility for the fate of the company, which now faces bankruptcy, most media report that the government has exhausted all options regarding the privatisation of the company and that a new tender remains the only solution, on condition the company is previously financially restructured.
The lower house of the Croat-Muslim entity's parliament on January 24 opposed the planned sale of the majority stake in Energopetrol to INA and MOL, as a result of a political and media campaign against the consortium which lasted several months.
INA and MOL were chosen as the best partners for the recapitalisation of Energopetrol in a bidding procedure which also included OMV from Koper in Slovenia and a consortium of small oil distributers from Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The Croatian-Hungarian consortium expressed readiness to pay around five million euros for the majority stake, take over the company's debts amounting to some 30 million euros, invest around 7.5 million euros in the company's development in the next three years and keep all of its 1,059 employees.
It was later established that the company's debt was 9.5 million euros higher and that its accumulated debt since 2001 amounted to 10 million euros.
Ministers and MPs from the Party of Democratic Action (SDA) and the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ BiH) were the only ones to support the sale of Energopetrol, while other MPs were against, which prevented Hadzipasic from completing the planned sale.
Asking the federal parliament to assume responsibility for the fate of the company, Hadzipasic warned that there was no money in the federal budget for the financial rehabilitation of the company and that its employees could soon end up jobless.
In their first reactions to Hadzipasic's letter, MPs refused to take responsibility for the company's future, insisting that the government deal with the issue.
The manager of INA BiH, Franjo Bozic, said that the INA-MOL consortium had still not received any official notice regarding the process of privatisation of Energopetrol.
He confirmed that INA and MOL were still interested in the recapitalisation of Energopetrol, but not in taking over any additional financial obligations.