Chennai Petroleum shuts refinery due to flooding, shares down

By Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Chennai Petroleum Corp Ltd shut its 210,000 barrels per day (bpd) Manali refinery on Wednesday night due to heavy flooding in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, sending its shares down as much as 5 percent to a week-low.

The state-run company, a unit of the country's biggest refiner Indian Oil Corp , is the main fuel supplier to the city of Chennai that has been submerged by the strongest spell of rain in more than a century.

"We have shut down the entire refinery from last night due to heavy rains and floods," Chennai Petroleum Managing Director Gautam Roy told Reuters on Thursday in a short telephone conversation.

The company's smaller 20,000 bpd Nagapattinam refinery was, however, operating normally, he said.

Chennai Petroleum's shares were down 4 percent at 194 rupees ($2.91) in afternoon trade on Thursday. They earlier hit a low of 191.60 rupees.

India's weather office has predicted more rains in Tamil Nadu this week, which could prolong the Manali refinery shutdown and disrupt fuel supplies.

($1 = 66.6350 rupees)

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma, Writing by Krishna Das; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)