ZAGREB, April 4, 2018 - Environmental Protection and Energy Minister Tomislav Ćorić said in an interview with Croatian Radio on Wednesday that he was confident the government would eventually find a solution for the Petrokemija artificial fertiliser producer, which, he said, was one of the burning problems the government had to deal with, the other two being INA and Agrokor.
Ćorić said that work on the recapitalisation of Petrokemija was under way, that Economy Minister Martina Dalić was in charge of the process and that he was confident a solution for the Kutina-based company would eventually be found, just as he was optimistic that problems with the other two companies would be solved positively.
Commenting on a project to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on the island of Krk, Ćorić said that a number of parallel processes were under way regarding the project. The one that concerns binding bids for taking a lease of the terminal is in its initial stage, while bids for the provision of a ship for the terminal are being evaluated, he said.
Ćorić believes that international partners, primarily countries north of Croatia, would show an interest in taking a lease of the terminal, and that the same would be done by legal persons in Croatia. In the international context, the LNG terminal on Krk, just as numerous other terminals in Europe, definitely represents an "infrastructure moment" that ensures supply as well as diversification of supply routes for countries north of Croatia, namely central and eastern European countries, said Ćorić.
The terminal capacity is 2.6 billion cubic metres of gas annually, which is roughly Croatia's total demand for gas, he said.
"Demand in Croatia does not require a terminal as big as this one, and that is why we believe that the terminal is a very good instrument in the context of the European Energy Union and that is the reason why its importance has been recognised by the EC," said Ćorić, who believes that bids for taking a lease of the terminal that were expected to arrive in the next few months would prove this.
As for the selection of consultants for the purchase of Hungarian oil company MOL's stake in the Croatian oil company INA, which MOL now runs jointly with the Croatian state, Ćorić said that the consultants should be known by the end of next week. The final decision is up to the government, the minister said. "The consultants can help us appraise the company, as well as evaluate the market and potential partners at some future stage," said the minister.
