Essar Oil (UK) Ltd on Wednesday stated gross sales quantity within the UK within the June quarter rose to a brand new excessive since Covid and it’s now centered on elevating manufacturing to satisfy Britain’s shortages after a ban on Russian imports.
Essar, which in 2011 acquired Stanlow oil refinery, has stopped importing diesel from Russia, the corporate stated in a press release.
“Home gross sales volumes continued to rise to a brand new excessive since Covid. Volumes of 1.72 million tonnes (in April-June), up 10 per cent from the identical quarter final yr (Q1 2021: 1.57 million tonnes),” it stated.
Volumes had been up 8 per cent within the first half of the calendar yr 2022 to three.2 million tonnes towards 2.96 million tonnes in the identical interval final yr.
Consolidated revenues through the quarter rose to USD 3.72 billion from USD 2.03 billion within the year-ago interval.
“The UK has traditionally been reliant on Russia to satisfy its diesel wants, and a key industry-wide problem is to supply these barrels from different home or non-Russian sources.
“In assist of the UK authorities’s introduced ban on Russian imports to be carried out by the top of this calendar yr, Essar ceased importing all Russian merchandise (together with diesel) from mid-April,” the assertion stated.
The corporate stated it has changed any shortfall from this technique by maximising indigenous diesel manufacturing in addition to sourcing non-Russian diesel.
“Our goal continues to be to assist the UK’s longer-term gasoline safety and resilience, and do what we will to satisfy the wants of our prospects within the face of tighter ranges of provide,” it stated. “All crude processed at Stanlow comes from US, West African and North Sea sources.” Stronger monetary efficiency within the quarter has enabled Essar to enhance its capital construction and strengthen its stability sheet.
“Essar’s general debt ranges for the present fiscal yr are considerably lower than 1x anticipated EBITDA, consistent with our low leverage method to capital construction,” it stated.
The corporate stated it has paid all historic Covid-related deferred tax funds in full.
On vitality transition, it stated it had in January introduced the formation of Vertex Hydrogen to construct the UK’s largest hydrogen hub at Stanlow.
“Vertex Hydrogen is a crucial funding for Essar in serving to us obtain our imaginative and prescient of turning into the UK’s first low carbon refinery whereas supplying UK markets with the sustainable fuels of the longer term.
“The £1 billion funding, which is able to sit on the coronary heart of the HyNet low carbon cluster, will produce a complete of 1 GW per yr of hydrogen from 2026, equal to the home heating vitality utilized by a serious British metropolis area,” the assertion stated.
Deepak Maheshwari, Chief Govt Officer of Essar Oil UK, stated, “after a really difficult 18 months, we now have made large progress on all fronts within the first quarter of 2022/23.”