Slovenia's Lone Oil Refinery Set to Be Privatised
Slovenia's lone oil refinery Nafta Lendava is likely to be privatised, 61 years after being established. A letter of intent on such a move was signed on Monday by Slovenian Economy Minister Andrej Vizjak and Vagit Alekperov, chairman of Russia's oil giant Lukoil.
The company, which is entirely in state ownership, was for a long time the driving force for the economy in the relatively disadvantaged NE region of Prekmurje.
Following a successful start, Nafta Lendava fell into a crisis following a 1980s' political decision to purchase new refining equipment and then resell it to China.
The company was thus left with payments for a refinery it did not have and was finally nationalised by the state and Slovenia's largest oil trader Petrol in 1994.
Despite promises to restructure it, the company stopped working in October 2000 with the state acquiring Petrol's 55% stake in the company in May 2002 for a symbolic SIT 1 (EUR 0.004).
A restructuring programme was launched and six subsidiaries set up. The company's agony ended in October 2005, when bankruptcy protection became final.
The company was thus able to get rid of old debts to the amount of SIT 15.5bn (EUR 64.43m), while the state transformed its SIT 10bn (EUR 41.57m) claims into an ownership stake.
The government decided to put Nafta Lendava on the list of companies to be privatised with the Ministry of the Economy saying in February that the privatisation would begin this year.
Alekperov meanwhile expressed his interest in investments into the refinery already during his first visit to Slovenia in May 2006.
Employing around 17o workers at the start, Nafta Lendava had 1,963 employes at its heyday in 1950, while today some 500 workers work for the parent company and its six subsidiaries.
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