BANJA LUKA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), September 24 (SeeNews) – Bosnian oil refinery Rafinerija Nafte Brod [BANJ:RNAF-R-A] has made more than 70 workers redundant, citing for a reason the halt in its operations since January, local media reported.
Another 88 workers are expected to be laid off by the end of 2020, private TV channel Al Jazeera Balkans reported on Monday, citing the company's trade unions.
Rafinerija Nafte is majority-owned by Russia's NeftegasInCor, a unit of Zarubezhneft.
It is located in the town of Brod, situated on the southern bank of the Sava river, which in this section forms the border between Bosnia and Croatia. Across the river, on the northern bank, lies the Croatian city of Slavonski Brod.
In May, Zarubezhneft's general manager Sergey Kudryashov said that the operations of the Brod refinery have been suspended since March for a regular overhaul, adding the refinery will resume operations next year once it is connected to the gas supply system.
He was speaking following the signing of a major deal with Croatia's Plinacro and Crodux Plin for converting the operations of the Bosnian plant away from heavy fuel oil.
The two Croatian firms agreed to feed gas to the Brod oil refinery via a future direct pipeline that will connect the refinery with the Croatian gas transmission system, run by Plinacro. For the purpose, Crodux Plin will transform its existing oil product pipeline linking the village of Slobodnica to the town of Brod into a gas pipeline for the needs of the Brod refinery. The works should be completed within 11 months.
The Bosnian refinery has said earlier its net loss soared to 55.8 million marka ($31.8 million/28.5 million euro) in the first half of 2019, from 6.1 million marka a year earlier.
Brod's accumulated loss amounted to 622.2 million marka at end-June.
(1 euro = 1.95583 marka)