The government has most strongly denied an article by the Croatian weekly Nacional which published an article alleging that Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic "ordered the export of oil from Croatia to Hungary," calling the claim "a malicious lie" and stressing that the government cannot make direct decisions about Ina's oil operations.

The weekly reported about Croatia’s strategic energy interests having been betrayed, with direct involvement by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, who, Nacional claims, during a secret meeting in his office in early August 2018 ordered then Energy Minister Tomislav Coric to carry out the closure of Ina’s oil refinery in Sisak and facilitate the export of Croatian oil for processing to Hungary.

Nacional adds that this was revealed to it “at the end of last week by a source who has direct knowledge of that meeting and is ready to testify in court.”

“We most strongly deny today’s article in the Nacional weekly, which is continuously spreading malicious lies based on unreliable sources, this time in reference to Prime Minister Plenkovic having allegedly ordered the export of oil from Croatia to Hungary,” the government said on Tuesday when asked by the Croatian state news agency Hina about the article.

Former economy minister Tomislav Coric spoke in public about the Memorandum of Understanding between INA and JANAF on several occasions during his term in office, the government added.

The weekly further alleges that also present at the meeting were the then head of the JANAF oil pipeline operator, Dragan Kovacevic, and the then deputy head of the Prime Minister’s office, Tena Misetic.

“The government cannot make any direct decisions regarding Ina’s oil operations. That is up to the company’s management bodies, and we want to underline that this government, as the second largest shareholder in Ina, has inherited that management model,” the government said.

It underscored that it “has invested significant effort to improve and strengthen Ina’s refining operations, especially by insisting on the modernisation of the Rijeka refinery through the implementation of a heavy residue processing project, which has a total investment value of around HRK 4 billion.”

The start of the refinery’s modernisation is expected at the beginning of 2024, which will mean that Croatia will significantly strengthen its position on the energy map of Europe in the current time of energy crisis, the government said.

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