Essar Oil commissions first ISOM unit at Vadinar refinery

Essar Oil, a subsidiary of multinational conglomerate Essar Group, has announced the successful commissioning of its new 0.7 MMTPA Isomerization (ISOM) unit at its Vadinar refinery.

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.

According to a press release files with the BSE, the newly commissioned ISOM unit is a key component of its envisaged Phase-I expansion plan at the company’s Vadinar refinery that will increase its capacity to 18 MMTPA (375000 bpd) from the current 14 MMTPA (300000 bpd). The statement mentioned that the commissioning of this unit was completed in just 32 days (as against an industry average of 50-55 days), without compromising on safety.

Using Naphtha as its primary feed, the Vadinar Refinery’s ISOM unit will help produce Euro IV grade gasoline of high octane rating and almost zero sulphur content. It is therefore a significant addition, enabling the company to produce high grade gasoline that has wide acceptance both in the domestic and international markets.

With this development, the company’s Phase-I expansion process at the Vadinar refinery is close to completion and after mechanical completion of a few other pending units, the increased refinery throughput of 18 MMTPA should commence from the first quarter of CY2012.

On completion, the expansion is also expected to increase the complexity from the current 6.1 to 11.8. Moreover an optimization project is also underway at the refinery to further increase the capacity to 20 MMTPA (405000 bpd). As of now, around 63 per cent of the work has been completed and the project is slated to be commissioned by September 2012.

The capacity expansion, complexity enhancement and subsequent optimization will give the Vadinar refinery the capability to process nearly 87 per cent ultra-heavy crudes, which are cheaper than light crudes. In terms of product yield, the expanded Vadinar Refinery will have the flexibility to produce higher value products, including pet coke.