By the end of 2020 oil refinery in Bosanski Brod should restart production, halted almost two years ago, said The Ministry of Energy and Mining of the Republic of Srpska (RS).
The refinery is planning to restart crude oil processing after the gasification project is completed, which should be by the end of 2020, according to its business plan.
In early 2020, Croatian company Crodux, with whom the refinery has a gas supply contract and an agreement on the construction of a direct gas pipeline, said that the construction works on the construction of the internal natural gas infrastructure have been completed for the most part, and that it is planned that the first volumes of gas through the direct pipeline will enter the refinery in the third quarter of this year. However, this was before the coronavirus outbreak.
Oil refinery in Bosanski Brod recorded a net loss in the amount of 60 million euros in 2019, compared to a loss of some 7.5 million euros in the previous year. The company’s operating revenues dropped by 93 % to just 1.2 million euros in 2019, while its operating costs dropped by 11 % to 32.4 million euros. The refinery is out of operation since January 2019 and it was initially expected that it should be back online in early 2020. Oil refinery in Bosanski Brod, as well as the refinery in Modrica and Nestro Petrol in Banja Luka are all part of Optima Group, majority owned by NefteGazInkor, a subsidiary of the Russian company Zarubezhneft.
