Rijeka Refinery Residue Upgrade Project

The Hungarian oil and gas company MOL Plc. has notified the market on the website of the Budapest Stock Exchange that the Supervisory Board of its Croatian subsidiary, INA granted its prior agreement this Friday for the Rijeka Refinery Residue Upgrade project and the INA Management Board unanimously approved the investment. The decision was supported both by the Croatian Government and by MOL, the two major shareholders of INA.

This investment is increasing the overall efficiency and complexity of the Rijeka Refinery and a significant part of the INA Downstream 2023 New Course transformation program, which is aimed at turning INA’s Refining and Marketing segment into a sustainable and profitable business. The total investment budget amounts to around HRK 4bn (around USD 600mn) and includes the Residue Upgrade unit, the reconstruction of existing refinery units as well as a new port with closed petroleum coke storage. The Residue Upgrade unit, using delayed coker technology, will improve the product structure of Rijeka Refinery by increasing the share of profitable white products, i.e. motor fuels and its commissioning is expected in 2023.

INA’s Downstream 2023 New Course transformation program also includes the concentration of crude refining activity in the Rijeka Refinery and the conversion of the Sisak Refinery to an industrial site, which will serve as a base for bitumen production (a project approved in March 2019), a logistic hub and potentially for lubricant production and a bio-component refinery, subject to further investment decisions.

MOL Group CEO and the Vice President of INA Supervisory Board, József Molnár, is quoted by the notification report as saying that “this decision proves MOL Group’s commitment to INA. By completing the Residue Upgrade project, we will substantially increase the complexity and the efficiency of the Rijeka Refinery. I firmly believe that the competitiveness of INA’s Refining&Marketing business will further improve once the unit is commissioned and the investment will have a significant positive impact on the company's profitability in the future.”