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Av. Borgono S/N, Apdo. 7048
Concon
Chile

This merger made the new company the largest oil refining company on the Pacific coast of South America, with a refining capacity of 220,000 barrels a day.

The formation of Empresa Nacional del Petróleo occurred five years after the first oil deposit was discovered in the Springhill sector in Magallanes on December 29, 1945. Following this finding, the team of explorers led by the engineer Eduardo Simián made further explorations and built up the economic feasibility studies, finally recommending to the Corporación de Fomento de la Producción (Corfo) the creation of ENAP to exploit commercially the deposits discovered in Magallanes.

One of the first tasks set by the infant company was to build an oil refinery in the country. This was completed in 1954 with the start-up of Refinería de Petróleo de Concón (today the Aconcagua refinery). Later, in 1959, the first logistical installations were built for the storage and distribution of the refined fuels in Maipú and, the following year, the Gregorio sea terminal in Magallanes.

The Cullen gasoline plant (Magallanes) started operating in 1962, followed in 1966 by the inauguration of the country’s second refinery in Talcahuano (today the Bío Bío refinery) and the construction of the multi-purpose pipeline between Talcahuano and San Fernando.

ENAP later developed the petroleum logistics area with the creation in 1981 of Empresa Almacenadora de Combustibles S.A. (Emalco), with liquid and gas fuel storage plants in Maipú, San Fernando and Linares. Sociedad Internacional Petrolera S.A. was then founded in 1991, to explore and exploit hydrocarbons deposits abroad.

In the Magallanes region, ENAP exploits the only hydrocarbon deposits in Chile and provides logistical and port services to important customers in the energy industry.