* Refinery running out of crude due to EU sanctions
* Can supply domestic customers until end of May
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CAPE TOWN, March 28 (Reuters) - Ivory Coast's 80,000 barrel per day (bpd) SIR refinery may be forced to shut from the middle of next month unless it gets fresh supplies of crude oil, the refinery's managing director said on Monday.
The refinery, located in Abidjan, has been struggling to secure crude oil due to European sanctions aimed at forcing incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo from power.
"We still have some strategic stocks, so we have no problem supplying the market until the end of May, but the refinery will be stopped by mid-April if we don't get any crude,"Joel Dervain, the refinery's managing director, told Reuters on the sidelines of an African Refiners Association meeting.
Dervain said the refinery was currently operating at 25,000 bpd, less than half of its capacity.
The refinery, which also serves a number of neighbouring countries, has been targeted by the European Union to prevent Gbagbo from clinging onto power after an election that U.N.-certified election results showed was won by rival Alassane Ouattara.
"The measure taken by the European Union -- all the assets that we had were frozen and we ran out of cash to pay for the crude," Dervain said.
"We've attacked the decision in court. We are waiting for a decision of the European Tribunal."
The refinery is one of a number of institutions as well as senior civilian and military figures to be targeted by the EU, which along with other Western and African organisations, is trying to force Gbagbo to step down after the U.N.-monitored poll. (Reporting by Agnieszka Flak, editing by Ed Stoddard and Jane Baird)