Essar Oil quadruples processing of ultra heavy crude oils

Pre-expansion Vadinar refinery had a capacity of 14 MT per annum and a complexity of 6.1. Post it being expanded to 20 MT, it has a compexity of 11.8.

Higher complexity of a refinery enables it to process inferior quality crude or heavy sour crudes and produce superior refinery product slate comprising of high percentage of LPG, light distillates and middle distillates and low

percentage of heavies and fuel oil.

Essar said refining margins going forward are expected to remain high as global capacity utilisation is under pressure due to planned and unplanned shutdowns. Also, investory levels are at five year low even though there is strong diesel demand in India, China and Middle East.