Essar Energy Ltd. subsidiary Essar Oil (UK) Ltd. will invest $250 million during fiscal-year 2018 to further boost operational efficiency and improve production performance at its 9 million-tonne/year Stanlow refining complex in the UK, near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire.
Primarily targeting projects aimed at expanding both processing and production capacities at the site, the proposed capital investment will result in increasing the refinery’s overall crude oil throughputs to more than 10.2 million tpy, Essar said.
Alongside unidentified maintenance works, the investment includes Essar’s $137-million Project Tiger Cub, which proposes major improvements to Stanlow’s key units that will help further reduce crude costs and improve yields across the refinery’s production slate, according to the company’s web site.
Essar, however, has yet to reveal details regarding the scope of work to be completed or the specific units to be targeted under Project Tiger Cub.
By the end Essar’s fiscal-year 2018 on Mar. 31, the operator said it will have invested more than $800 million on projects to turn around performance of the Stanlow refinery since purchasing the complex from Royal Dutch Shell PLC in (OGJ Online, Aug. 2, 2011).
In fiscal-year 2015, Essar completed a project to reconfigure Stanlow into a single-train manufacturing site, which included mothballing the refinery’s smaller CD3 crude unit to reduce fuel oil and naphtha production as well as help increase absolute margins (OGJ Online, Feb. 18, 2014).
Contact Robert Brelsford at [email protected].
