Neither any individual in the INA management nor any collective body in the Management and the Supervisory Board have proposed the closing of the oil refinery in Sisak, INA's public relations office said in a statement.

During its meeting on Wednesday, the company's Supervisory Board discussed a proposal for INA's medium-term development from 2011 and 2015, and some media made speculations that a possibility of closing the refinery in Sisak, 50 kilometres southeast of Zagreb, was mentioned at that meeting.

The board's chairman Davor Stern that ruled out that possibility.

"The change of the main line of business or changes in the work in the Refinery Susiak were mentioned as different scenarios for the development in the processing of the crude oil in INA. No mention was made about the complete closing and it is out of question," Stern told reporters.

He added that the strategy of INA's development was a business secret.

The supervisory board's deputy chairman, Gyoergy Mosonyi, released a statement stressing that it was clearly said that the Sisak plant should not be and would not be shut down.

"Sisak is important for Croatia, the local economy and for INA, It is one of INA's strategic assets," Mosonyi wrote in his statement.

According to him, the management has proposed the investments of one billion dollars in the two refineries (Sisak and Rijeka), with a plan to upgrade the Rijeka refinery to European standards.

The management has also shown that the further development of the Sisak refinery would require an additional billion dollars, which would never be a sustainable and profitable option. Therefore, INA's management has proposed an analysis of alternative scenarios of the development so as to use Sisak in the future with an aim of retaining jobs, Mosonyi said.

The proposed strategy envisages INA's investments of a record high 20 billion kuna in the next five years, with two thirds of this amount being invested in projects in Croatia, he added.