Vadinar refinery expansion to be completed by March 2011: Essar

Ruias-owned Essar Oil today said the expansion programme of the Vedinar refinery to increase capacity to 18 million tonnes per annum will be completed by March, 2011, barring two units.

"Almost 70 per cent of the project has been completed until date. All the new units are progressing on schedule and within budget, except for two units that are lagging by a quarter," Essar Oil CEO Naresh Nayyar told reporters here.

He added that the two delayed units will also achieve mechanical completion by June next year.

With the expansion, the refining capacity of Vadinar refinery will go up to 3.75 lakh barrels per day (BPD) from existing 3 lakh BPD and will be able to process nearly 90 per cent heavy and ultra heavy crude, he added.

The refinery processes about 64 per cent heavy and ultra heavy crude and 36 per cent light sulphur crude.

Besides this, Nayyar said that crude purchased from Cairn India's Mangala oilfields accounted for 9 per cent (at 30,000 barrels a day) of Vadinar refinery's total off-take in the July-September quarter.

He added that crude purchased from Venezuela and Brazil are now getting replaced to some extent by the Mangala Crude.

Talking about the second quarter results, Nayyar said the company posted a net profit of Rs 130 crore in the quarter ended September 30, 2010, against a loss of Rs 94 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

The gross refining margins (considered barometer for assessing a refinery's performance) stood at $6.49 per barrel during the July-September quarter, he said.

He added that Essar Oil plans to have 1,700 retail outlets by March 2011 and about 200 petrol pumps are under construction, while 1,376 outlets are fully operational.

Talking about the scenario post deregulation of petrol price, he said the company has achieved a spectacular growth of about 58 per cent in petrol sales, while the income from retail outlets have increased to Rs 752 crore in the second quarter vis-a-vis Rs 536 crore reported in the corresponding quarter of 2009-10.

He also expressed hope that government would soon deregulate diesel prices as well.

Besides this, Essar Oil expects that commercial sales from Raniganj Coal-bed Methane block will begin by December, for which test production of 18,000 standard cubic metres a day (SCMD) has already started, Nayyar said.

He added that Essar is developing a pipeline network in Durgapur city to facilitate city gas distribution in the Asansol-Durgapur area.