-Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mrs. Ermina Salkicevic-Dizdarevic visited Oil Refinery Brod on September 19, 2012

Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mrs. Ermina Salkicevic-Dizdarevic visited the Oil Refinery Brod and talked with hosts in an interesting meeting attended by Chief of Deputy Minister's cabinet, Dr. Admir Softic, as well as Deputy Director of Optima Group, Optima Group Ltd., Mr. Slavko Scepanovic, General Manager of the Oil Refinery Brod, Mr. Sergei G. Krascuk, Director of Security for the Refinery, Mr. Nikolai P. Rikunov, Director of Financial Issues in the Oil Refinery Brod, Mr. Ljubov J. Fyodorov, Assistant General Manager for commercial and marketing operations in the Oil Refinery Brod, Mr. Kiril V. Ostroverkhov and Adviser to Deputy Director for Technical Issues in the Oil Refinery Brod, Mr. Miro Ceric.

The representatives of the Oil Refinery Brod presented the process of oil refining and production facilities (both newly built, and refurbished) and introduced the guests to the activities and investments of the Oil Refinery Brod, realized from the moment of arrival of the investors from Russia. Also, the representatives of the refinery presented the results achieved and investment plans until 2015 to the representatives of the Ministry.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mrs. Ermina Salkicevic-Dizdarevic said that she was proud that there was a company in BiH that not only invested more than EUR 260 million but also planned to invest another EUR 760 million, and expressed readiness of MoFTER and other BiH institutions to support further projects of the Oil Refinery Brod, one of the most important companies in BiH.

During further talks, the most important issues were discussed related to the planned investments in Nestro Group which consists of "Optima Group" Ltd. Banja Luka, the "Oil Refinery Brod" a.d. Brod, the "Refinery Modrica" a.d. Modrica and "Nestro Petrol" a.d. Banja Luka.

The following issues were discussed:

• Development and adoption of a new decision on the quality of liquid fuels in BiH.

• Improvement of the navigability of the Sava – riverbed cleaning (due to inadequate maintenance of the riverbed in the part near Novi Grad the number of fairway days on the river has been significantly reduced, resulting in reduced exports of petroleum products from the Oil Refinery Brod).

• Enabling exports of petroleum products produced in the Oil Refinery Brod via the border crossing Brod-Slavonski Brod, i.e. activities that would enable this border crossing to get the status of the first category.

Following the interviews, the participants visited the production site of the refinery in order to obtain a more accurate picture of the conditions thereof.