News

Stanlow’s strong performance

Reducing production of lower margin products such as fuel oil and naphtha, Essar’s Stanlow refinery has increased the yield of high margin products such as gasoline and middle distillates
Reducing production of lower margin products such as fuel oil and naphtha, Essar’s Stanlow refinery has increased the yield of high margin products such as gasoline and middle distillates
Essar Oil (UK), which owns and operates the Stanlow Refinery, announced its best ever performance for the first nine months of a financial year, for the year ending March 31st 2016.
Since acquiring Stanlow in 2011, Essar has successfully reconfigured the refinery to operate as a single train highly optimised site.  The refinery has increased the yield of high margin products such as gasoline and middle distillates and also reduced production of lower margin products such as fuel oil and naphtha.
Robust operational performance in YTD FY16 has delivered a number of notable landmarks including the highest ever monthly amount of residue being upgraded via Europe’s largest Cat Cracker, highest monthly throughput in the HDS2 upgrading unit and record daily production of high value propylene.
In the nine months to December 31st, 2015, Stanlow, which produces about 15% of the UK’s road transport fuel demand, processed 6.77 MMT of crude, a 7% increase on the previous year’s 6.35 MMT.

  • Gross revenues for the period stood at $4,041 million, a 35% drop to the $6,257 million reported in FY15, largely due to the lower crude oil price which fell 52% year on year average.
  • EBITDA was a record $304 million for a nine month period, against $126.7 million reported in FY15.
  • Profit after Tax (PAT) was its highest ever at $179 million, against $35.3 million in FY15.
  • Essar Oil UK reported its best ever Current Price Hydrocarbon Margin (CP HCM) at $10.1/bbl, a 20% increase to the $8.4/bbl reported in FY15, primarily due to refinery reconfiguration and improved benchmark margins.
  • Product availability to customers was again 100%.  This continued the excellent performance seen across the entire 12 months of FY15 where 100% availability significantly contributed to energy supply security in the North West of the UK.

“The business is in a healthy financial position, with no long term debt and ongoing margin improvement plans in place to deliver an even stronger bottom line,” said Essar Oil UK chief financial officer, Sampath P.
Operational and financial performance:  Key Indicators

First nine monthsQ3FY16Q3FY15GrowthYTDFY16YTDFY15Growth
Throughput (in MMT)2.272.29(1%)6.776.357%
Gross Revenue (in $m)1,0901,767(38%)4,0416,257(35%)
CP HCM (in $/bbl)8.18.8(8%)10.18.420%
EBITDA (in $m)7241.773%304126.7140%
Profit after Tax (in $m)359.1285%17935.3407%

www.essar.com