Commenting on press reports about an attempt by the Croatian national oil pipeline operator JANAF and Russian investors to take over oil fields which the INA oil company possesses in Slavonia, Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said that JANAF was a company of strategic state interest which the government did not treat as a market-related category.
"I have stated my position on JANAF. It is one of the several most important Croatian companies," Milanovic said when asked by reporters about a report in the Jutarnji List daily saying that the Russian company Zarubezhneft planned to take over transport corridors running through Croatia and take possession of INA's oil fields in the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia.
According to the daily, a consortium called "Zarubezhneft Adria" has been set up for this purpose, with the Russian state-owned company holding a 51 percent interest in the consortium, the Swiss off-shore company "White Falcon Holding" having a 31-percent stake and JANAF a ten-percent stake.
Arriving at the government building, Milanovic said that JANAF was of strategic interest and that INA was a company in which MOL, a strategic partner, had a great influence.
"INA is where it is, with a great influence of the strategic partner from Hungary, MOL. JANAF should be exclusively a Croatian company, as far as I'm concerned," Milanovic said.
Asked whether his cabinet would check what was going on, the PM said that everything of national interest, such as JANAF, should be checked, but he said that this did not mean that the government would launch an investigation.
"The government is not an investigative body, but takes care of national interests. Providing energy supplies is a national interest. The energy policy is a very important thing," he said.
