DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/641fd1/chiles_energy_sec) has announced the addition of the "Chile's Energy Sector and the 2010 Earthquake" report to their offering.
2010 was looking like a good year for Chile. The first month of the year saw 4.3% growth and 4Q09 2.1%, signs that the economic crisis was passing and the soon to be President Sebastian Piera was promising 6% annual growth. Unfortunately for the country of 17 million people, an 8.8 earthquake struck in the morning of February 27th, the effects of which are still being calculated. Some of this damage was absorbed by the energy sector, with an immediate impact on electric distribution and major damage to the country's largest oil refinery. With this in mind, the importance of energy as a pillar of a nation was emphasized to an extreme and should be cause for reflection to prepare for similar future events.
In the worse affected areas, a lack of electricity complicated an already desperate situation, which took around 2 weeks to approach normalcy. Cellular phone service immediately collapsed in the country, first due to an oversaturation in calls, then later due to a lack of fuel to run the generators to power their antennas after the backup batteries were exhausted. While damage to the airport left stranded shipments of salmon to rot, salmon industry executives later advised of the difficulties of harvests because of a lack of fuel. Southern farmers declared an emergency situation for this same reason throughout the south of the country. Travel to and fro the disaster zone (mainly the VI, VII, and VIII provinces) was made frantic by damaged infrastructure and a lack of functioning gas stations, whose electric pumps were immobilized. And the list goes on forever.
By mid March, Chile was largely past the immediate results of the quake, with electricity reaching all but the most devastated areas where houses were completely destroyed, and fuel supply was guaranteed by arriving tanker ships. Now the country is left to deal with the myriad long term effects of the earthquake on the energy sector, and this report attempts to analysis some of those impacts, as well as the sectors recovery in the months after the quake.
For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/641fd1/chiles_energy_sec