Croatia's INA Cuts Syrian Oil, Natural Gas Output

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; [phone]; [e-mail]