MOSOCW (MRC) -- Essar Oil UK aims to lift processing of US oil at its 200,000 barrels per day Stanlow refinery by March to 40% from 35% currently, reported Reuters with reference to its Chief Executive Officer S. Thangapandian said.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Petroleum Conference (APPEC), Thangapandian also told Reuters his company is in talks with some parties to sell a majority stake in its Stanlow Oil Terminal Ltd infrastructure business as it seeks to leverage its portfolio of assets.
He didn’t identify potential buyers, but said the company was looking for "a strategic partner" for the majority stake in the infrastructure business, which carries a value of around USD1 billion.
"Currently US crude is making sense to us," Thangapandian said.
"As long as US oil is Brent-minus it is in the game," he said, referring to US crude costing less than the international benchmark. Thangapandian said his company procures most of the US oil from spot markets.
As MRC informed previously, India’s Essar Oil in 2011 acquired Stanlow refinery from Shell.
Since then it had carried out modifications including shutting some units in an effort to make the refinery profitable. Thangapandian said Stanlow’s current gross refining Margins is USD9.5-10/bbl.
Essar Oil UK plans to increase its retail fuel station network to 500 in 5 years from the current 72. The refiner also imports fuels and says it has a 16% share of the market.
As MRC repoted before, in late August 2018, s fire which broke out at a Shell-owned chemical plant on the same site as Essar Oil UK’s Stanlow refinery in northwestern England was extinguished. Essar said that operations at its refinery were unaffected by the fire. The Shell Higher Olefins Plant (SHOP) is separated from the refinery by a road and rail tracks. Essar operates the chemical plant as well as the refinery. At Stanlow, Shell uses ethylene to manufacture polymer, lubricant and detergent intermediates, plasticisers and detergent alcohols.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,255,800 tonnes in the first seven months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 796,120 tonnes in January-July 2019, up by 11% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
MRC