ZAGREB, CROATIA – The gas business must be excluded from Ina, Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said, adding that the sale or exchange of shares of the Ina Croatian oil company had to be indefinitely postponed considering the financial and energy crisis in the world.

- We need to talk to MOL (the Hungarian oil company) to exclude the gas business from Ina – PM Sanader said. He added that this exception had to be made in order for Croatia to keep its energy independence.

- This does not mean that we are going against MOL which proved to be a good partner – Sanader said.

Croatian Economy Minister Damir Polancec explained that in Croatia, Ina was selling gas at a price of 1.22 kuna, while it was importing 40 percent of gas from Russia’s Gaspron at a price of 2.27 kuna.

- In line with guidelines from the EU, the difference between the domestic and import price of gas should not exist - Polancec said. Gas, he said, is the most important item of negotiations because it is “a precondition for the possible further selling of Ina’s shares”.

Polancec recalled that the government’s ownership structure in the Croatian oil company has fallen under 50% and also mentioned that the five-year agreement between the government and MOL is to expire in a couple of days.

Polancec stressed that negotiations about the change to the shareholders agreement were going well.

By the next government session, Damir Polancec should submit a report about the final agreement with Hungary’s MOL.