Essar Oil Limited : Essar Oil announces commissioning of Amine Regeneration Unit (ARU); Vadinar Refinery capacity to increase to 18 MMTPA by March 2012

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Essar Oil Ltd, a subsidiary of Essar Energy, today announced the successful commissioning of the Amine Regeneration Unit (ARU), which is a part of the Phase I expansion at its Vadinar Refinery.

When completed, the Phase I expansion will increase the Vadinar Refinery's capacity from 14 MMTPA (300,000 bpd) currently to 18 MMTPA (375,000 bpd), as well as increase its complexity from 6.1 to 11.8. The project is nearing completion and increased throughput of 18 MMTPA will commence by March 2012

An optimisation project is also under execution at the refinery to further increase the capacity to 20 MMTPA (405,000 bpd) by September 2012. The capacity expansion, complexity enhancement and subsequent optimisation will give the Vadinar refinery the capability to process nearly 87% ultra-heavy crudes, which are lower cost than light crudes. In terms of product yield, the expanded Vadinar Refinery will have the flexibility to produce higher value products, including pet coke.

Lalit Gupta, MD & CEO-Essar Oil, said, "After the commissioning of the Isomerization Unit last month, the refinery team is working towards ensuring the commissioning of all the remaining units that form a part of our Phase I expansion. The ARU commissioning is one more step in that direction and will be followed by all the balance expansion units being commissioned in the current quarter."

The Amine Regeneration Unit (ARU) is a UOP-designed unit, with 8 MMTPA (million metric tonnes per annum) design capacity. The ARU at the Vadinar Refinery is one of the largest such units in the world. The operational readiness of the ARU is essential to ensure smooth operations of the DHDT (Diesel Hydrotreater) and VGO-HT (Vacuum Gasoil Hydrotreater) units.

The hydrogen sulphide (H2S) generated from the removal of sulphur from diesel and vacuum gasoil is absorbed in a special amine solution in the DHDT and VGO-HT units, respectively. It is then desorbed out of the amine solution in the ARU unit, rendering the amine usable again in the DHDT and VGO-HT units.

Essar is the first refinery in India that will use UCARSOL in the ARU. UCARSOL is a specially formulated amine from Dow Chemicals that helps achieve better efficiency in gas treating and reduces energy consumption.

About Essar Oil
Essar Oil is a fully integrated oil & gas company of international scale with strong presence across the hydrocarbon value chain from exploration & production to refining and oil retail. It has a global portfolio of onshore and offshore oil & gas blocks, with about 2.1 billion barrels of oil equivalent in reserves & resources. Essar Oil has over 300,000 bpsd (barrels per stream-day) of crude refining capacity that is being expanded to 405,000 bpsd. There are more than 1,600 Essar-branded oil retail outlets in various parts of India.

About Essar Group
The Essar Group is a multinational conglomerate and a leading player in the sectors of Steel, Energy, Infrastructure and Services. With operations in more than 25 countries across five continents, the Group employs 75,000 people, and has revenues of USD 17 billion.

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