CROPLIN - NEW GAS DISTRIBUTOR FOR CROATIA

( Editorial: --> 6259 ) ZAGREB, Oct 6 (Hina) - CROPLIN, a Croatian/German gas production and distribution company - was established in Zagreb on Tuesday. An agreement of foundation was signed by the Director General of the Croatian Oil Company (INA), Davor Stern, a spokesman for the administration board of Mannheimer Verorgungs und Verkeersgesellschaft (MMV) from Mannheim, Ronald Hartung and a spokesman for the Hannover based Reussag Wasser und Rohrtechnik (Preussagg), Dietmar Preuss. The new company which is 50 percent owned by the Croatian INA, and 25 percent owned by each of the Germany partners, will be involved with the production and distribution of gas. Other activities will be planning, construction and sale of goods, trade mediation on the domestic and foreign markets and company representation. Speaking about the reasons for expanding INA activities, Davor Stern emphasised that MMV was one of the largest utility companies in Germany and with its experience it would assist with the distribution of Croatia's gas network. An innovation to be introduced by CROPLIN is the possibility of paying for gas installation to homes in instalments. Stern repeated that it was not sufficient to bring gas to a suburb, but the objective of having gas is so that each household could have access to this energy. The founding of CROPLIN was a vital precondition for INA and its partners to be able to compete for the tender of installing gas to particular cities. The company is now involved with obtaining contracts to gasify the eastern Croatian town of Slavonski Brod. Responding to questions by journalists, Stern stressed that the price of gas does not affect the profitability of the project. Prices which are calculated within the utilities system of individual towns leave sufficient leeway for the profitability of this project, said Stern. He added that the current price of the distributing network was inadmissibly high. According to calculations conducted at INA, Croatia's potential market by the year 2025 could be about 5-6 billion cubic metres of gas. (Hina) sp jn 061802 MET oct 98