INA Gass Storage Remains State-Owned

INA's underground gas storage in Okoli has been singled out through book-keeping, and it can be separated as a special daughter-company.

The government, in a similar manner, selected out a backbone gas network from the Croatian oil company INA into a special state company Plinacro a few years ago, which the state compensated to INA by taking over their debts to the Paris and London clubs, the Poslovni Dnevnik writes Monday.

Strategically important object

The main reason for the singling out of the storage lies in the fact that this is a strategically important object for the normal supply of consumers during the winter when consumption due to heating is many times greater than during the warmer part of the year. That is why the gas surplus is extruded into bore holes of this storage and is used for the normalisation of supply in the colder part of the year, especially during the maximum consumption time.

State desires the storage in its ownership

That is the reason why the government desires this important object to remain in state ownership and its separation from INA has been announced. INA will be privatised in majority after the announced sale of seven percent of its shares to employees and former employees. Fifty-six percent of the company’s shares will, thus, be sold.