Croatia's INA Cuts Syrian Oil, Natural Gas Output
December 21 2011 - 8:58AM
Dow Jones News
Croatian refiner INA-Industrija Nafte d.d. (INA.ZG) said
Wednesday that it needs to cut its crude oil and natural gas output
in Syria due to European Union sanctions and political instability
in Syria.
INA, a subsidiary of Hungarian oil and gas firm MOL Nyrt.
(MGYOY), carries out exploration and development activities in two
major blocks, the Hayan and the Aphamia.
Operations there came under pressure when a political uprising
started in Syria earlier this year; since then, the European Union
council has introduced sanctions against Syria and imposed a ban on
the import of Syrian oil to the EU.
As a consequence, INA has been forced to reduce crude oil and
natural gas production by approximately 1,300 barrels of oil
equivalent a day on top of the crude oil production decrease of
1,500 barrels a day announced in September.
These compare with an output of 7,900 barrels a day in MOL's
global production report published in March. INA in its current
statement didn't update the daily output figures, but only revealed
the size of the reduction.
On top of that, INA is still experiencing difficulties in
collecting payments from its Syrian partner for its share of
hydrocarbon production.
At 1322 GMT INA shares were down 0.5%, or HRK20, at
HRK3,880.
-By Veronika Gulyas, Dow Jones Newswires; +361-267-0623;
veronika.gulyas@dowjones.com