The Aconcagua refinery, Chile’s second-largest with a capacity to process 102,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude, has been shut down since Friday following a power outage caused by forest fires raging in the country, its owner said on Sunday.
The wildfires have left at least 51 people dead and burned tens of thousands of hectares of land in the center and south of the country, mostly in the coastal region of Valparaiso, home to nearly one million people.
Authorities have called the catastrophe the deadliest since the powerful 2010 earthquake that left about 500 people dead. They also estimate that the death toll will continue to rise in the coming hours.
“All the units and plants of the Aconcagua refinery are halted after the power outage that affected part of the region as a result of the fires,” Chilean state oil firm National Petroleum Company (ENAP), owner of the refinery, told Reuters in a statement.
ENAP said that it had reinforced preventive and safety controls “in order to minimize risks in view of the complex situation in our region.” It added that the fire has not reached the plant.
The Aconcagua refinery is located at the mouth of the Aconcagua river, some nine miles (15 km) north of the epicenter of the fires, in the ValparaÃso region.
Chile is a net importer of crude oil.
Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire
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