September 14 (SeeNews) - Croatia's government said on Wednesday that it decided to urge local oil and gas group INA [ZSE:INA] to boost its domestic natural gas production by 10% and sell all of it to state-owned power utility Hrvatska Elektroprivreda.
“We will demand INA to raise its domestic production of natural gas as much as possible currently, which is by 10%,” economy minister Davor Filipovic told a weekly cabinet meeting, as seen in a video file published by public broadcaster HRT.
The government also decided on Wednesday that INA should sell its entire domestic gas output to HEP, at the lowest possible prices set by the national energy regulator, which for households is 41 euro ($40.9) per megawatt hour, Filipovic told a news conference after the cabinet meeting.
Last week, the government announced its intention to ban exports of natural gas produced domestically by INA amid a corruption investigation of resale of gas by lower-level managers of the company.
Croatia's anti-corruption prosecution office, Uskok, said in late August it has launched an investigation of five individuals and a local company suspected of reselling natural gas belonging to INA, with damages for INA estimated at 1.046 billion kuna ($141 million/140 million euro).
Hungarian energy company MOL is the largest shareholder in INA with a 49.08% stake, followed by the Croatian government with 44.84%.
(1 euro = 7.520 Croatian kuna)
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