Croatia's Janaf mulls joint projects with Serbia's NIS, Russia's Gasprom - report

"We are thinking of joint projects with NIS and Gazprom, such as the possibility of building an oil products pipeline, but this is still a project for the more distant future," news daily Novi List quoted the head of Janaf, Dragan Kovacevic, as saying in an interview on Sunday.

He provided no further details on the potential joint projects but said that Janaf is building two large oil tanks at its terminal in Sisak, planning to strengthen its position and turn the terminal the second most important hub in its network after Omisalj.

According to the plan, the Sisak terminal will be oriented predominantly to the markets of Hungary, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kovacevic said.

The Omisalj oil terminal, on the island of Krk, has 20 crude oil tanks and seven tanks for oil products. It handles Croatia's oil imports from the Caspian region, the Middle East, the Black Sea ports and some African countries.

The Sisak terminal at present has 11 crude oil tanks, data from the company's website shows.

Janaf also has crude oil and oil products terminals in Virje, Slavonski Brod and Zitnjak. It operates 631 kilometres of pipelines.

The biggest clients of the Croatian company include foreign firms such as Hungary's MOL, British–Swiss commodity trader and mining company Glencore, and Russia's Rosneft, among others, as well as local energy firm INA.

Janaf's net profit rose 6% on the year to 241 million kuna ($35.7 million/32.4 million euro) in the first nine months of 2019, it said last month.

The Croatian government controls a stake of some 79% in Janaf, company data showed.

Janaf's shares last traded on the Zagreb bourse on November 7, closing 2.22% lower at 4,400 kuna.

(1 euro = 7.43807 kuna)