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Spanish oil company Repsol YPF SA (REP) will reduce the output
at its Basque refining subsidiary Petronor by nearly 42% as a
result of the current economic situation.
The company will halt output at five out of 12 units of the
refinery, meaning the 250,000-barrel-a-day refinery will produce
about 104,000 barrels a day less in oil products, a Repsol
spokesman said Tuesday.
Repsol's profit in the second quarter had plunged on much lower
refining margins. Refining margins in Repsol's core Spanish market
fell 94% to $0.5 per barrel in the second quarter from a year
earlier, due to a reduction in spreads for diesel, and a recent
tightening of the gap in prices paid for light and heavy crude, the
company said in July.
To improve refining margins, Repsol from April to July had
already mothballed its 100,000-barrels-a-day Cartagena refinery in
southern Spain.
In a press release on Petronor's Web site, the refinery said
operations at the production units of plant 2 will be halted as of
Monday and added that for the time being there's no scheduled
resumption of those operations.
Petronor is 85% owned by Repsol, while Basque savings bank BBK
owns the other 15%.
-By Enza Tedesco and Bernd Radowitz, Dow Jones Newswires,
enza.tedesco@dowjones.com;