Petroecuador restarts Esmeraldas refinery after weekend earthquake

QUITO, April 19 (Reuters) -- Ecuador's 110,000-bpd Esmeraldas refinery restarted at 41.5% capacity on Monday night and will be fully operational by Wednesday after a precautionary stoppage because of a major earthquake, state oil company Petroecuador said.

"After suspending operations for 57 hours to allow for technical inspections and find possible damage to industrial structure, yesterday at 9 p.m. ECT (0200 GMT) the start-up process of the Esmeraldas refinery's different processing units began," Petroecuador said in a statement on Tuesday.

By Wednesday, the OPEC country's biggest refinery will be functioning at 100% capacity, the company added.

Ecuador's oil industry escaped damage from Saturday's 7.8 earthquake that killed more than 400 people and injured over 4,000.

The head of Petroecuador, Pedro Merizalde, told Reuters on Monday that oil exports were flowing and that there was no force majeure.