(Bloomberg) -- INA Industrija Nafte d.d., Croatia’s biggest energy company, plans to invest about $400 million annually in the coming years to upgrade its refinery, boost renewables and finance upstream businesses.

The company, which is controlled by Hungary’s Mol Nyrt. and partly owned by the Croatian state, plans to finish the ongoing more than €630 million ($683 million) modernization of its Rijeka refinery on the Adriatic coast by mid-2025, Zsuzsanna Ortutay, the head of INA’s management board, said in an interview in Zagreb.

“The new delayed coker unit that will be installed in Rijeka refinery will increase the security of diesel supply not only for Croatia, but also for Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and other surrounding countries,” said Ortutay. “Right now INA’s refining capacity is not sufficient to cover even domestic consumption of diesel, but the upgrade will change that.”

INA has completely weaned itself off of Russian crude already in 2019, and now imports fuel mostly from Azerbaijan, Greece and Italy. It’s also considering upstream acquisitions in Egypt, where the company already has stakes in four production and one exploration concession.

The company will set aside 20% of its annual capital expenditures for renewables, according to Ortutay, a rare top-level female executive in the oil and gas industry. 

Investments include boosting solar power output as well starting biomethane and green hydrogen production, both as early as 2026. The company will also begin geothermal exploratory drillings next year in northern and central Croatia, according to Ortutay. 

“Our goal is to fulfill the European Union requirement and have 42% of our total produced energy content from renewables,” Ortutay said. “It’s not an easy task, but we are working on it.”

--With assistance from Veronika Gulyas.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.