Zarubezhneft bids to buy OMV fuel stations in Croatia and Bosnia

The Moscow-based company also plans to invest more than 1 billion Euros ($1.3 billion) to build an oil products pipeline and use existing oil links in Croatia in partnership with Janaf, the country’s state-owned oil pipeline operator, Zarubezhneft General Director Nikolay Brunich informed reporters in Zagreb. OMV of Austria is selling subsidiaries in Croatia and Bosnia as central Europe’s biggest oil company decided to focus more on exploration and production, it said on Dec. 6.

“The projected pipeline would increase export of oil derivatives from refineries in Brod and Sisak,” Brunich said. The pipeline would stretch from Slavonski Brod in Croatia to the island of Krk in Omisalj, where Janaf has oil storage capacities, Brunich added. The link would pass through Bosanski Brod in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where Zarubezhneft operates the Brod refinery, and through Zagreb.

INA Industrija Nafte d.d., the Croatian refiner controlled by Hungary’s Mol Nyrt., runs the Sisak refinery.

Zarubezhneft also plans to compete for oil and gas exploration licenses in nine locations in Croatia, according to Brunich. Some of the sites were explored by Industrija Nafte until the government revoked its license last year.