May 24 (SeeNews) - Russia's Zarubezhneft, majority owner of Brod oil refinery in Bosnia, is expected to agree supplies of natural gas to the plant with two Croatian companies on Saturday in a bid to stop the use of heavy fuel oil for the refinery's operations and thus reduce air pollution, according to media reports.
Representatives of Croatia's Crodux Plin and Plinacro, Zarubezhneft and Brod refinery will sign contracts aiming to secure regular gas supplies to the refinery which is now using heavy fuel oil to run its industrial operations, news outlet tportal.hr quoted unnamed sources from the Croatian president's office as saying late on Thursday.
The switchover to gas will greatly reduce air pollution and health hazards in both Bosnia and neighbouring Croatia and will help bring the refinery's operation to higher environmental standards, thus raising its market competitiveness, tportal.hr noted.
The oil refinery is located in Brod, 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.
Due to air pollution, which at times stands at 40 times above norms, citizens of Slavonski Brod often protest against the operation of the refinery, tportal.hr said. Moreover, Slavonski Brod is considered one of Europe's most polluted cities, with the average annual concentration of hydrogen sulfide in the air 28 times above norms.
Croatian president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic discussed the issue with Russian president Vladimir Putin in July 2018. Since then, there has been some progress, with Putin promising modernisation of the refinery would take place soon at RNB and it will be converted to run on natural gas, the media report said.
According to the report, Zarubezhneft's general manager Sergey Kudryashov, the head of Brod refinery Anatolij Karaljus, the head of Crodux Energetika, Branko Radosevic, and Plinacro president Ivica Arar will sign the three contracts in Slavonski Brod. Croatian president Grabar-Kitarovic will reportedly also attend the signing ceremony.
The first agreement provides for the construction, operational usage and maintenance of a direct gas pipeline. It signed by the representatives of Zarubezhneft and Croatian privately-held gas trader Crodux Plin. In addition, the refinery and Crodux Plin will sign a natural gas supply contract, while Croatian state-owned gas transmission system operator Plinacro and Crodux Plin will ink a preliminary agreement on connecting to the gas transport system.
In particular, Crodux Plin will supply the refinery with natural gas via a direct connection to the Croatian transmission system. For the purpose, the existing Slobodnica-Brod product line will transform into a direct gas pipeline to be used solely by the refinery.