Further development of the plant was stopped due to the Balkans war
– located right on the border between Croatia and the Republika Srpska,
the refinery found itself almost in the eye of the storm. The new train was
never put on stream. The pipeline system and railroad facilities passed into
the control of Croatia. Pursuant to that, the refinery resumed operations
only in 2000. The refinery entered a new development stage in 2007, when
Neftegazinkor, a 100% subsidiary of Russian state-owned company
Zarubezhneft, became the majority shareholder of the plant.
Upon completion of the modernisation programme, the refinery managed
to achieve throughput of 900 000 - 1.2 million tpy and start producing Euro 5
diesel and high octane gasolines, yet remains unprofitable. Thus, it seems that
Zarubezhneft’s activity in Bosnia and Herzegovina is still a political project,
with Russia lending a hand to a friendly state, the Republika Srpska.
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
The only Macedonian refinery located near the state capital, Skopje, was
built in 1982 with active support from Soviet specialists. The refinery’s
capacity is 2.5 million tpy, yet over the 25 years capacity utilisation has
remained at 50% or less.
The refinery belongs to OKTA. Since 1999 OKTA’s majority shareholder has
been EL.P.ET. Balkaniki, a subsidiary of Greek oil group Hellenic Petroleum. As
it acquired OKTA, Hellenic Petroleum embarked upon a programme to
integrate the Macedonian refinery with the HELPE refinery, located in
Thessaloniki, through the construction of a 210 km long pipeline. The pipeline
was put on stream in 2002. Aside from pipeline construction, there was a
refinery modernisation programme that spanned 2000 - 2007 and cost around
US$60 million, which aimed to improve the quality of the fuels produced.
Over the last few years the OKTA refinery’s performance has been far
from stable – in 2013 the refinery experienced a shutdown and processed
merely 60 000 t of crude. In 2014 it resumed operations, yet the financial
result of the year was negative. In 2015 OKTA regained profitability and its
2016 results also look promising.
Albania
The Albanian refining industry is comprised of two plants, in Ballshi and in
Fier, which have capacities of 1 million and 500 000 tpy, respectively. Over
the last few years, the Ballshi refinery remained idle, while the Fier refinery
kept operating, although at extremely low capacity utilisation – in 2013 it
only managed to process 40 000 t of crude.
In February 2016 the owner of the Fier refinery, ARMO, made an attempt
to sell it for
€
20 million through an organised auction, but failed. According
to company data, it only had a single call – someone from abroad requested
additional information.
Slovenia
The Slovenian refining industry consists of a single refinery with 700 000 tpy
of capacity that was operated until 2000. In 2015 the owner of the refinery, a
state energy holding Nafta Lendava, sold it to US Methanol Corporation for a
mere
€
5.6 million. It is likely that the new owner will dismantle the plant and
sell off the equipment that is still operational.
Conclusion
The oil refining industry in each of the countries discussed has experienced
some challenging periods, had its fair share of drama (and even detective plots),
and each one is worthy of its own separate article. Yet the pivotal factor that
drives the development of these industries is their desire to integrate into
modern Europe through the rationalisation of facilities, improvement of health,
safety and environment (HSE) standards, implementation of modernisation
programmes to bring products up to the current European standards, and the
enhancement of operational activities.
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