The Company

Historic summary

Officially founded: June 19, 1950, Law Nº9,618.
After discovering the first oil well in the country, at Springhill sector in Magallanes, on December 29th 1945, the Chilean Government was determined to create Empresa Nacional del Petróleo [National Oil Company], which was officially established on June 19, 1950, with the publication of Law Nº 9,618. The Springhill petroleum finding was made by the explorers’ team headed by engineer Eduardo Simian Gallet, and it gave way to new perforations of productive wells. This way, the team headed by Mr. Simian recommended the creation of ENAP to the Corporación de Fomento de la Producción (Corfo), to commercially exploit the reservoirs found in Magallanes.

One of the first targets of the newly born company was to create an oil refining plant in the country, a task ended in 1954, with the start-up of the Concón Oil Refining Plant (nowadays Aconcagua Refining Plant). Then, in 1959 the first logistic facilities for storage and distribution of refined fuels were built in Maipú, and next year the Gregorio maritime terminal was built in Magallanes.

In 1962, the Cullen Gasoline Plant (Magallanes) started operating, to continue in 1966 with the opening of the second refining plant in the country, at the Eigth Region (nowadays Bío Bío Refining Plant), and the construction of a poliduct from this Refining Plant to San Fernando, in the Sixth Region. From this city, this duct is connected to another managed by Sonacol company, which transfers fuels to the Storage Plant located at Maipú, in the Metropolitan Region.

In 1981 ENAP entered the logistic business, with storage plants for liquid and gas fuels in Maipú, San Fernando and Linares. Currently, this activity is carried out through the Storage and Oil Pipelines Department, which is a part of Enap Refinerías S.A.
On January 1st, 2004, the refining plants merged into one company: Enap Refinerías S.A.

In 1990, ENAP established Sociedad Internacional Petrolera S.A., to explore and exploit hydrocarbons ores in foreign countries. Since 2005 this subsidiary changed its name to Enap Sipetrol S.A.

In the Magallanes area, ENAP exploits the only hydrocarbons ores with a commercial value in the country, and it provides oil and port logistic services to important clients that operate within the energy sector. Also, during the last two years it has started a strong exploratory campaign of new gas reservoirs in Magallanes and, in turn, it has established new alliances with other companies in order to diversify the energy sources in the country.