Essar Oil (UK) wraps capacity, production expansions at Stanlow refinery

Essar Oil (UK) Ltd. has completed its previously announced investment of more than $250 million to boost operational efficiency, expand capacity, and improve production performance at its Stanlow refining complex in the UK, near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire (OGJ Online, Sept. 7, 2017).

Executed alongside unidentified maintenance works during the refinery’s recently completed and largest turnaround ever, Project Tiger Cub entailed major improvements to Stanlow’s key units to help further reduce crude costs, improve yields across the production slate, and increase overall crude throughputs at the site to more than 10.2 million tonnes/year from its previous 9 million-tpy capacity, Essar Oil (UK) said.

The combined turnaround and project cost amounted to about $258 million, according to the operator.

By the close of the operator’s fiscal-year 2018—which ended on Mar. 31—Essar Oil (UK) said it has invested more than $850 million on projects to turn around performance as well as ensure profitability and sustainability of the Stanlow refinery since purchasing the complex from Royal Dutch Shell PLC in (OGJ Online, Aug. 2, 2011).

Completion of Project Tiger Cub this year follows Essar’s fiscal-year 2015 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).

On July 4, Prashant Ruia, chairman of Essar Oil (UK), said the company will continue to make proactive investments in technology to build a sustainable business that remains competitive in the rapidly changing global energy market.