Essar Oil also plans to scale up its ability to process heavy and sour crude oils and pump superior quality fuels.
The company has operated its refinery at 120% utilization level during the first nine months period of 2009 processing 9.6 million tone of crude oil.
During the fourth quarter of 2008, Essar Oil has processed 3.3 million tone of crude oil, which is in surplus of 125% capacity utilization level.
Being just a basic refinery with low difficulty has affected Essar Oil’s gross refining margins. The refinery margins were at $12.5 for the June 2008 quarter, $6.59 a barrel for September 2008 quarter and $2.2 for the December 2008 quarter because of inventory losses and weakening margins.
