Isra-Mart srl : Czech carbon registry shut at least 6 weeks

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Isra-Mart srl news:

PRAGUE Jan 27 (Reuters) - The Czech carbon registry operator OTE said on Thursday it does not expect to reopen for at least six weeks following the theft of at least $7 million euros of emissions permits in its system.

OTE also said in a late evening news release it had located all 1.3 million of its missing permits, including 610,000 in Germany and Estonia. It said it was waiting on confirmation that another 500,000 were in Great Britain's registry and that it knew the location of the other some 200,000 missing permits.

"OTE does not expect to renew operation of the Czech registry until an acceptable solution is found in Europe," Jiri Stastny of OTE said in a statement. "We estimate the time of the closure of the Czech registry to be at least six weeks."

Most carbon exchanges suspended spot trading last Thursday when the EU Commission imposed a week-long freeze after a potentially concerted theft by cyber criminals of emissions permits worth up to 30 million euros ($41 million). [ID:nLDE70J0Q9]

The EU commission said this week it would only reactivate member states' carbon registries when they have met minimum security requirements and it would give the market 24 hours' notice when it did so. [ID:nLDE70O1OP]

Some registries have already said they would delay restarting for at least a week. (Reporting by Michael Kahn, Jason Hovet and Roman Gazdik; Editing by David Gregorio)