Dear Conference Attendees,

On behalf of INA, I am very pleased to support this important oil industry downstream event, held in Dubrovnik, at which two related issues of high interest will be discussed.

The first main session will be the 17th International Downstream Technology & Strategy Conference (IDTC) which will provide participants with valuable insights related to challenges and opportunities pertinent to the international refining and petrochemicals industry. It will also present the latest strategies and technologies that will bring producers more competitiveness, enable operations optimization and efficiency increase.

The second conference session will be the 15th International Bottom of the Barrel Technology Conference (BBTC). This event has established itself as the most important Residue Upgrading event in the industry. The latest technology innovations and advances to ensure success will be presented, while showcasing real examples from several refineries around the world.

For a number of oil companies, residue upgrading is already a reality. Due to a favorable business environment during the pre-recession years, these refiners registered high profit rates and high return on their timely investments. For others, it is high time to consider investing in this technology.

INA is among the leading Croatian investors with one of the highest reinvestment ratios compared to other key companies in Croatia. In the past ten years, INA has invested HRK 24 billion in its core business and holds a leading position in Croatia’s retail and wholesale market despite hard competition increase. INA did not cut investments, but brought them back to the previous years’ level – which enabled our stability in the implementation of the launched and planned projects.

One of those projects, the most important one, is the Residue project upgrade in Rijeka refinery. The future of INA’s refining business is in Rijeka, which will be upgraded with DCU, a technology that will bring competitiveness to Rijeka Refinery. In November 2016, the contract on the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) was signed, which is a major step towards the realization of this project. With estimated worth of over HRK 3 billion, it is not only one of biggest investments in INA’s history, but also one of the biggest investments in Croatia. Our goal is to significantly improve market position and competitiveness of Rijeka Refinery both on regional and European level.

Completion of FEED and the necessary accompanying documentation is planned for fall 2017. In the meantime, INA will continue with works on the construction site. On this path we count on support from all our key stakeholders in order to achieve INA’s further growth since INA is an important factor of Croatian economy and represents a guarantee of energy stability of the country.

I look forward to welcoming you to the conference and hope you will benefit from the program, at the same time enjoying your stay in the beautiful city of Dubrovnik.

Best regards,
Zoltán Áldott
President of the Management Board of INA