Economy Minister Darko Horvat told Croatian state radio on Wednesday that restoring domestic ownership of the oil company INA would be possible "once the company's real market value was determined."

Once the process of determining the market value of INA’s shares is completed, we will be able to say how much money is needed to buy back the company’s shares, Horvat said.

INA is jointly owned by the Croatian state and the Hungarian oil group MOL, with MOL holding a 49.1% stake in the company, Croatia holding 44.8%, and private and institutional investors holding 6.1%.

Asked if it was in Croatia’s interest for oil extracted in Croatia to be exported to Hungary as cheaper raw material and then be imported back from Hungary as more expensive oil products, Horvat said that the so-called heavy Slavonian oil had certain specificities and was not easy to process nor could it be processed in just any refinery.

It is in Croatia’s strategic interest to secure oil supplies and there is no dispute about that, he said.

Asked about a memorandum of understanding between the JANAF oil pipeline operator and INA, published on Tuesday, Horvat said that he did not wish to comment on documents in whose making he had not participated and which he had not signed.

Asked how much maneuvering space the government had to force MOL to have oil extracted in Croatia processed at least in the Rijeka refinery, Horvat said that preparations for the upgrading of the Rijeka refinery were near completion.

“That major investment will give its contribution to economic recovery already this year,” the minister said, adding that he had always advocated an agreement between MOL and the Croatian state.