OREANDA-NEWS. Indian conglomerate Essar will close the sale of a majority stake in its 400,000 b/d Vadinar refinery to Russian investors between 20-30 April.

The closure of the deal was pushed into fiscal 2017-18, which began this month. Debt-laden Essar needs to secure approvals from the government and lenders to conclude the agreement.

Russian state-controlled Rosneft agreed last year to acquire 49pc in Essar's refinery in Gujarat state. It was part of a wider deal, worth $12.9bn, that included the sale of a further 49pc stake in the refinery to a consortium led by trading firm Trafigura and including Moscow-based investment group United Capital Partners.

Throughput at Vadinar grew by almost 10pc in fiscal year 2016-17, to a record 420,000 b/d from 382,000 b/d a year earlier. Retail sales went up by 75pc from a year earlier, to 2.8mn kiloliters. The retail network grew by 67pc to 3,499 outlets as on 31 March, with 2,631 others under various stages of implementation.

Essar has modified its crude slate to enable Vadinar to process higher volumes of ultra-heavy and high acidic crudes. The refinery converted most of its VGO into gasoil and other value-added products in fiscal 2016-17. Vadinar's crude API was 23.3°.