Essar Oil restarts 20 MTPA Vadinar refinery

Essar Oil today said it has restarted its 20 million tonnes a year Vadinar refinery in Gujarat after a month-long maintenance shutdown.
The company had taken a 30-day shutdown from September 18 to October 17 at the refinery.
"The shutdown related activities have been successfully completed and the refinery has commenced operations on October 17, 2015," it said in a stock exchange filing.
The company, in this period, undertook major maintenance and inspection jobs of all its refinery units.
The previous such major planned shutdown was taken in September/October, 2011.
There was no production during this period.

Being a continuous process industry, refinery shutdown is a meticulously planned operation which refineries need to undertake once every 3-4 years in order to maintain their operational reliability since all major units typically operate under high temperature and pressure and are subject to wear and tear as well as corrosion.

During this period, all the units are thoroughly inspected and wherever required, repairs/replacements are carried out.
This opportunity is also used for undertaking debottlenecking activities and improvement in facilities.
Essar Oil last undertook its turnaround shutdown in September-October 2011, when it connected the base refinery with expanded units, which were then bought on-stream in phases in 2012.