Ceska rafinerska shareholders – Unipetrol (51%) and an IOC consortium (Conoco, Agip, Shell - 49%) – preliminarily agreed yesterday on CRaf's long-term role in the holding. CRaf shall be transformed from a profit center to a cost center and will predominately serve other members of the Unipetrol group. This might help settle current disputes between main shareholders over long-term supply prices - an issue, which affects the progress of Unipetrol privatization.
On the other hand, a CRaf EGM yesterday refused to prolong the current temporary agreement on intra-holding prices, valid until the end of this month, to the year-end. Source: Czech Press Agency (CTK).
The issue of supply prices thus remains far from clear and stands to further burden the operating performance of the main companies in the holding. An official statement on the issue is expected from Unipetrol today.
(Jan Hajek)