OREANDA-NEWS. Essar Oil (UK) Limited, which owns and operates the Stanlow Refinery in Ellesmere Port today announced its best ever financial results, for the year ending March 31st 2016.

During the year, Stanlow, which produces 16% of the UK’s transport fuel demand, processed 8.97 MMT of crude, a 5% increase on the previous year’s 8.54 MMT.

Gross revenues for the 12 months were $4,992 million, a 34% drop to the $7,615 million reported in FY15, primarily due to the lower crude oil price which fell 44% year-on-year average.

EBITDA was a record $359 million for the year, against the $177 million reported for FY15.

Profit after Tax (PAT) in the period grew to $244 million, against $70 million in FY15.

Stanlow continued to benefit from its optimised single train site operation, which increased the yield of high margin products such as gasoline and middle distillates, whilst reducing production of lower margin products like naphtha and fuel oil.

During the year, long term working capital facilities were agreed.  These comprised a five year agreement with J. Aron & Company for Inventory Monetisation and a three year Receivables Securitisation facility with Lloyds Bank Plc.

Growth and Integration
Essar Oil UK moved into downstream integration, with a highly successful entry into the UK fuel retail market.  With seven sites already operational, the business has confirmed ambitious plans to grow its retail network within the UK market to 400 sites over the next three years.

The company also committed to a significant capex investment of $137 million in project Tiger Cub for major improvements to key units at Stanlow which will deliver further reduction in crude costs and improved yields across the product slate. 

Essar Oil UK Executive Chairman, Naresh Nayyar, commented:  “This was a good year for the business, with the strong financial and operational performance reflecting the significant improvements made by Essar in optimising Stanlow since acquiring the refinery.  The market was supportive and our reliability and flexibility ensured we could capture those opportunities.  Looking forward, our ongoing margin improvement initiatives, major capex investment project and ambitious plans for downstream integration through the UK retail sector will deliver a truly sustainable and successful future for us.” 

Essar Oil UK Chief Financial Officer, Sampath P, said:  “This is a business in a strong financial position with no long term debt and strategic plans in place to further improve our refining margins. The figures for both our Profit after Tax (PAT) and EBITDA are records for Stanlow under Essar ownership and were supported by product cracks throughout the year.”