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Power outage in Rotterdam port resolved, refineries affected

A power blackout in the Rotterdam port location in the Netherlands briefly interrupted operations at one of Europe's biggest oil refineries on Tuesday, the plant's operator BP said.

Electrical energy grid operator TenneT stated the issue was solved soon after 1000 GMT. It said that BP's 400,000 barrels per day oil refinery, Europe's 2nd biggest, was amongst the plants affected, together with smaller sized plants and the rail network in the area.

BP confirmed the power failure had affected the plant, but later said it was resuming operations.

Rotterdam is one of the world's most significant crude and fuel refining and storage centers, housing Europe's largest oil refinery, Shell's 404,000 bpd Pernis plant.

A Shell spokeswoman decreased to discuss whether the refinery was hit by the outage.

A source acquainted with the plant's operations stated the power interruption triggered a brief disruption on a small system, but that operations had gone back to typical.

Dutch environmental agency DCMR said in a statement on Tuesday that the power failure affected some refineries in the location, resulting in flaring.

Gas flaring is a precaution practiced by refineries to release the buildup of pressure when a system experiences an upset.

A spokespoerson for ExxonMobil, which operates a. 190,000 bpd refinery in the area, stated the plant was not. affected.

VTTI's oil storage terminal in the Europoort area of the. port resumed normal operations after being affected for a couple of. hours, a spokesperson told Reuters.

The grid operator said it was investigating what had caused. the outage in the location of Europe's largest sea port, which. houses major oil refineries and chemical plants.

The Rotterdam port stated traffic was not impacted.

(source: Reuters)