Essar Energy completes acquisition of Shell's Stanlow oil refinery

Essar Energy plc, the UK arm of Mumbai-headquartered Essar Group, today announced that it had completed the $350-million acquisition of the oil refinery and inventory of the Stanlow refinery from Shell UK Limited.

Essar had announced the $1.3-billion deal in March, for which it has paid $916 million for the crude oil and other stock at the site (See: India's Essar Energy picks up UK refinery for $1.3-bn)

The Stanlow refinery, near Ellesmere Port in the north west of England, is the second largest refinery in the UK with a nameplate capacity of 296,000 barrels of oil a day. It supplies approximately one sixth of the UK's petrol, as well as being a key manufacturer of diesel and aircraft fuel.

The refinery had been running at approximately 75 per cent capacity at the time of the deal being announced.

Naresh Nayyar, Essar Energy's chief executive, said that Stanlow was a high quality refinery and would be an excellent fit with Essar's refining strategy.

"It takes us substantially closer to our objective of a global refining capacity of one million barrels daily. We look forward to making some operational improvements which will optimise production at Stanlow,''  Nayyar said.