Croatian Plan to Regain Syrian Oil Fields Queried

With war still ongoing in Syria, plans for Croatian energy company INA to regain control over the gas and oil fields it partly owns in the country are viewed with some doubt by a leading expert.

Former general director of INA Davor Stern told BIRN that it is hard to say if regaining control over the fields is physically possible.

"The situation is complex due to various groups fighting in Syria, with the situation changing daily. It is hard to make any prognosis [although regaining] control over the fields would benefit INA," he said.

Stern added that INA's restored control over the fields in question would not effect ongoing negotiations with Hungarian energy company MOL over shares in INA.

Croatia currently holds 44.84 per cent of shares, while MOL holds 49.08 per cent. Croatia wants to buy back full control over the company.

Stern said MOL knew about the fields when it was buying stock in INA and their value was not taken into account during the purchase of shares in 2003.

The government revealed its planned move on Christmas Eve, after Croatia lost its arbitration process against MOL before the UN Commission on International Trade Law, UNTRAIL, in Geneva.

Croatia had sued MOL in January 2014, claiming that MOL's management rights over INA, incorporated into the 2009 shareholders' agreement, were the result of corrupt activity between MOL's chair, Zsolt Hernadi, and Croatia's former Prime Minister, Ivo Sanader.

INA has six oil and gas fields in Syria, after buying the first in 1998. The fields were co-owned with the Syrian state-owned company, Hayan Petroleum Company.

While INA controlled all the fields, it drew 350,000 barrels of oil from them daily. It also invested around 800 million euros in equipment,...