Essar nears completion of Vadinar expansion

Essar Energy has commissioned a further two units at its Vadinar refinery in India, leaving just one additional unit remaining to be commissioned as part of the 1.81bn-dollar phase one expansion project.

Essar Oil announced today that it has successfully commissioned the new Sulphur Recovery Unti (SRU) and the Vacuum Gasoil Hydrotreating Unit (VGOHDT). The Delayed Coker Unit (DCU) is the only unit left to be commissioned.

The Vadinar refinery, located in Gujarat, is India's second largest private sector oil refinery with capacity currently being expanded from 14.7m metric tonnes per annum (mmtpa) to 18mmtpa (375,000 barrels per day) with further plans to expand to 20mmtpa by September 2012.

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"The world today has moved to ultra low sulphur fuels, and refineries that can manufacture such products have a competitive edge," said LK Gupta, Chief Executive Officer of Essar Oil.

"The Vadinar refinery, which is now in the final leg of its expansion programme, will soon be among the world's most complex refineries capable of producing fuels that meet the world's most stringent emission norms," he said.

The phase one expansion project is now "just days away from being fully completed".

Shares were trading 1.95% higher at 151.8p on Wednesday afternoon.

BC