Essar Oil to invest Rs 1200 cr in Vadinar refinery

Essar Oil is planning to invest an additional Rs 1200 crore in its Vadinar refinery before the stake sale by the promoters to Rosneft.

This will help the company generate an additional margin of $1.50 a barrel.

The company has already invested Rs 400 crore during a 28-day planned shutdown of the refinery in September-October last year. The investment will be made to upgrade various refinery units over the next two-three years, said a company statement.

Ruias are selling majority stake in the company by October this year to Russian oil giant Rosneft and will use the proceeds to repay loans to overseas banks.

C Manoharan, director, refinery, Essar Oil, said, “After the shutdown, we have able to modify our crude blend to process higher quantities of ultra-heavy and high TAN crudes, and increase the production of high value distillates. This has enabled Essar Oil to improve its crude and product mix significantly, which is reflected in our financial performance.”

Lalit Kumar Gupta, managing director and chief executive officer of Essar Oil, said: "We are committed to making our refinery among the best in the world through efficient deployment of resources. We will take a path of safety and sustainability in reaching our goals. We believe in setting new benchmarks for the industry.”