Eni Q2 oil refining down on plant shutdowns

MILAN, July 31 (Reuters) - Throughputs at Eni (ENI.MI), Italy's biggest refiner, fell 6.7 percent year-on-year in the second quarter to 8.70 million tonnes due to planned and unplanned refinery shutdowns in Italy, Eni said on Thursday.

Volumes processed in Italy dropped 10.3 percent due to refinery downtime at the Venice, Taranto and Milazzo plants, while processing at the Livorno refinery fell due to "a more challenging refining environment," Eni said in a statement on its second-quarter results.

Volumes processed outside Italy jumped 21.3 percent mostly due to higher contribution from the main Czech oil refiner Ceska Rafinerska, Eni said.

Eni's refining throughputs in the first half of 2008 fell 3.7 percent to 17.65 million tonnes. Volumes processed in Italy fell 7.4 percent while Ceska Rafinerska's contribution helped to boost volumes processed outside Italy by 23.4 percent. (Reporting by Svetlana Kovalyova)