India: Essar Completes Refinery Shutdown on Schedule
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Wednesday, 26 October 2011 |
Essar Energy has announced that the 35-day shutdown of its Vadinar Refinery, part of plans for improving the facility, has been completed on schedule. The shutdown, which allowed 2,424 maintenance and inspection jobs along with 1,400 tie-in jobs to be completed, was essential to tying in new units to the refiner while also expanding the existing CDU (Crude Distillation Unit), the FCCU (Fluidised Catalytic Cracking Unit) and the SRU (Sulphur Recovery Unit).
The company also used the opportunity to carry out routine inspection of the facility, said Essar Energy CEO Naresh Nayyar. "This was a complex task involving around 15,000 employees and contractors which was completed on schedule and to the highest safety standards. The completion of the phase I expansion will be a major value driver for the company, increasing gross refining margins, cash flow and profitability. In addition, the opportunity to carry out routine maintenance and inspection at the same time means we can also benefit from an extended period of operation without any further shutdowns," he noted.
The phase 1 expansion of the facility is expected to boost capacity to 375,000 bpd from current levels of 300,000 bpd. The capital cost of the project is an estimated $1.85bn.
PetrolWorld 26102011
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