San Leon Energy reduces operations in Poland

(ShareCast News) - Oil and gas group San Leon Energy has confirmed it will scale down its operations in Poland, in a bid to reduce its exposure to exploration assets.The company said it will relinquish four licences in the country - covering the Czersk, Budzów, Ilawa, and Praszka sites - while it will sell its stake in the Bieszczady area (which amounts to eight licence blocks) to PKN ORLEN."The company remains committed to its remaining acreage in Poland, which includes the Baltic Basin shale licences and the recently announced gas discovery at the Rawicz field," group chief executive Oisin Fanning said on Tuesday.Analysts at finnCap hailed the decision as a "sensible" step for the London-listed group."Managing costs is clearly a sensible thing to do," they said in a note."We had not included these assets in our core valuation, so there is no change to our 278p target price today."San Leon shares were down 3.59% to 70.50p at 0850 BST on Tuesday.