The optimisation project of Vadinar Refinery located in Gujarat has been completed four months ahead of the scheduled date. The company now accounts for about 10% of India’s total refining capacity.
Essar Oil MD & CEO Lalit Gupta said the completion of the company’s optimisation project was much ahead of schedule.
"With this commissioning, our capex cycle has now come to an end and we are fully geared to deliver the value of our investments to all our stakeholders," Gupta added.
Essar oil had earlier increased the capacity of the refinery from 10.5MMTPA to 18MMTPA by investing INR 91bn ($1.6bn) and it further invested INR 17bn ($306m) for the optimisation project.
The company has set up the refinery at a capital cost of $12,746 per barrel which is almost half of the global average.
Essar Oil Refinery director C Manoharan said, "Our operating costs are amongst the lowest worldwide and with the completion of Optimisation Project we have significantly moved up in the refining value chain."
The company, as a part of the optimisation project, has converted the visbreaker unit in to crude distillate unit to process the ultra heavy/tough crude on standalone basis, to improve the economics.
The company also completed the secondary units required to support additional throughput along with other supporting infrastructure such as pipelines, tankages, and blending facility.
The refinery can now produce gasoline (petrol) and gas oil (diesel) amongst other higher value, high-quality products conforming to Euro IV and Euro V norms.
