CAPITAL: Zagreb

MONETARY UNIT: Kuna

REFINING CAPACITY: 235,900 b/cd

OIL PRODUCTION: 26,146 b/d

OIL RESERVES: 92 million bbl

GAS RESERVES: 1.2 tcf

INA-Industrija Nafta DD, Croatia`s state-controlled oil and gas company, was in merger discussions with Hungarian oil and gas monopoly MOL Rt.

Officals of the Croatian company said the government was unlikely to approve the merger until after the nation`s general elections in 2000.

MOL shareholders also would have to ratify the proposed merger. MOL, Hungary`s largest company by sales, had begun restructuring and expanding under a strategy to become eastern Europe`s dominant energy company.

INA refined about 235,000 b/d to supply 500 filling stations in Croatia, while MOL refined about 232,000 b/d for a 420-station network in and near Hungary.

OMV AG of Austria also was seeking to acquire all or part of INA.

MOL and INA signed a letter of intent to build a 40-km pipeline connecting their gas networks. The line would allow gas to move from Russia to Croatia via Hungary. INA wanted to cut its cost of shipping gas from the East.

Earlier in 1999, MOL and INA signed a gas exploration agreement for a 133-sq-km area on the Hungarian-Croatian border.

Agip SPA started gas production from Ivana A platform in the Adriatic Sea off Croatia.

Ivana field, operated by the 50-50 venture of Agip Croatia BV and INA, was 40 km west of Pola in 43 m of water.

First-stage production from Ivana A was estimated at 25 MMcfd from five wells. Output was expected to plateau at 63 MMcfd in 2001 with the addition of four satellite platforms: Ivana E, D, B, and C.

Ivana had reserves of 280 bcf. Development costs were estimated at $190 million.

The gas was to be moved through a 67-km line to the Garibaldi K platform in the Italian Adriatic Sea off Ravenna, where it would be compressed and sent to Agip`s Casalborsetti treatment plant.