MOSCOW (MRC) -- A fire broke out at Eni's (ENI.MI) Sannazzaro De' Burgundi oil refinery in northern Italy on Thursday afternoon, the oil major said, adding there were no reported injuries, said Reuters.
Eni, Italy's biggest refiner, said in a statement the fire had started at around 4.00 pm in the so-called EST plant at the refinery. The cause was still unknown.
"The fire is currently being extinguished," Eni said.
Traders said the 200,000 barrels-per-day refinery had started a 30-day maintenance on November 6.
Eni built the EST plant, ENI Slurry technology, to convert heavy oil residues into petrol and diesel products.
A spokesperson for the Italian fire brigade said earlier on Thursday the fire was large and had sent up clouds of smoke.
"There's a lot of smoke and we are currently evaluating whether any sort of evacuation plan may be needed," Luca Cari told Reuters.
As MRC informed earlier, in June 2016, Eni announced that it could not reach an agreement with the US private equity firm SK Capital to sell a majority stake in ENI’s chemicals subsidiary Versalis (Milan) and has terminated the discussions.
Eni is an Italian multinational oil and gas company headquartered in Rome. It has operations in in 79 countries, and is currently Italy's largest industrial company with a market capitalization of EUR68 billion (USD 90 billion), as of August 14, 2013. The Italian government owns a 30.3% golden share in the company, 3.93% held through the state Treasury and 26.37% held through the Cassa depositi e prestiti. Another 39.40% of the shares are held by BNP Paribas.
MRC