BackEssar Oil plans 35-day refinery shutdown
Essar Oil plans 35-day refinery shutdown
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New Delhi: Essar Oil plans to completely shut down its 280,000 barrels per day (bpd) Vadinar refinery for 35 days in May-June to add new units and raise capacity to 360,000 bpd, it said in a statement on Monday.
“Essar Oil will also take advantage of the period of shutdown to carry out routine maintenance work at the refinery," it added.
During the shutdown, Essar Oil plans to raise the capacity of its fluid catalytic cracker by 1 million tonnes to 3.9 million tonnes a year, the statement added.
The expansion would improve the plant’s complexity to process nearly 90% heavy and ultra-heavy crude and refining margins.
The company said it was on track to further expand capacity to 400,000 bpd by September 2012 at an investment of Rs1700 crore ($373 million).
Essar Oil said ancillary units to support the expanded refinery have either been commissioned or are under trial operations.
“This will include a new 380-megawatt, gas-fired power plant for power and process steam, a new jetty and road gantry for product evacuation, and 30 new tanks for storage of crude and products".
Essar, which also sells fuel locally, said 1,385 retail outlets are currently operational and 240 more were in various stages of construction.
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