Sources for the history of petroleum economy in western Croatia

Abstract

The Author begins by presenting a short survey of the origins of the petroleum economy in Croatia, origins that go back to the middle of the 19th century. The Rijeka Oil Refinery started to process petroleum in 1883. Rijeka was chosen because of its position on the sea-shore, for it was the cheapest way of transporting oil to it. The land routes from Rijeka were the shortest to ail regions of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy. The refinery was founded by a French firm with the help of the General Hungarian Credit Bank from Budapest. The construction supervision, and the surveillance over its functioning, was entrusted to an experienced chemistry engineer - Milutin Barac. He can be considered as the founder of the Rijeka Oil Rafinery. He was General Manager during 38 years, until 1920. Under his direction the Refinery constantly grew into a modern plant. He was also interested in the natural sciences and he took active part in the social and cultural life of Rijeka. He was, for example, benefactor of numerous societies and institutes. He was a Croatian patriot and opposer of Italian and Hungarian claims on Rijeka, so that he fell into disfavour and had to resign from the position of General Manager after the arrival of D’Annunzio; he was expelled from Rijeka in 1922. In 1923 the Refinery became property of the Italian state, who bought the majority of shares. After WWII the Refinery has grown into the biggest oil plant in ex-Yugoslavia, and today it is the biggest in Croatia. The Rijeka Oil Refinery was the subject of many written works, an understandably so because it belongs to the oldest and biggest European oil-plants. The biggest part of archival material on the Refinery is today kept in the Historical Archive in Rijeka, while some documents are in the Croatian State Archive, in the Zagreb Town Archive and in the Refinery Registrar, as well as in the private collection of the Baborsky family in Zagreb. The Archives in Budapest and in Italy have not yet been adequately researched.