We have investigated and interpreted the production cross sections and isotopic distributions of projectile-like residues in the reactions 124Sn + 124Sn and 112Sn + 112Sn at an incident beam energy of 1 GeV/nucleon measured with the FRS fragment separator at the GSI laboratory. For the interpretation of the data, calculations within the statistical multifragmentation model (SMM) for an ensemble of excited sources were performed with ensemble parameters. The possible modification of symmetry energy parameter, in the multifragmentation region at the low density and hot freeze-out environment, is studied. It is reconfirmed that a significant reduction of the symmetry energy term is found necessary to reproduce experimental results at these conditions. We have also found a decreasing trend of the symmetry energy for large neutron-rich fragments of low excitation energy which is interpreted as a nuclear-structure effect.