Essar Oil's Vadinar refinery recognised as 'Refinery of the Year' by PetroFed

Hembala P Dixit, Joint General Manager-Maintenance at Essar Oil, received PetroFed’s Woman Executive of the Year award. 

The awards were given by the Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Govt. of India, K.D. Tripathi.

Lalit Kumar Gupta, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, and C Manoharan, Director-Refinery, accepted the award at a glittering ceremony in New Delhi on  Monday.

This is the second instance that the refinery has received the award, after having won it for the first time in 2011.

Essar Oil’s Vadinar refinery was conferred with the award based on its performance measured in terms of production and operating efficiency, safety initiatives, improvement in energy consumption, environment protection, environment and occupational safety and health, information technology and initiatives in using advanced technology during the year.

Essar Oil’s Vadinar refinery produces about 9% of India’s refining output, a company statement claimed.

"It is also among the world’s most complex refineries that has processed 91 types of crudes, including the dirtiest crudes available. In less than four years since its commissioning in 2008, the refinery capacity was increased from 10.5 MTPA to 20 MTPA, while the complexity was enhanced from 6.1 to 11.8," the statement said.

Manoharan said, “We are delighted to receive this prestigious award for the second time. We have vastly improved our crude blend and product slate at the refinery, and this is reflected in our financial performance."

"Our margins, too, have remained consistently above the industry benchmarks. I would also like to take the opportunity to congratulate Mrs Dixit for being honoured with the Woman Executive of the Year award by PetroFed,” said he.

According to Gupta: “The Vadinar refinery is a world-class asset and we will continually invest in upgrading it so that we can better our efficiencies further.”

Essar Oil recently announced that it will invest an additional Rs 1,200 crore on refinery upgrades over the next 2-3 years, after having spent Rs 400 crore during a planned 28-day shutdown in September-October last year.

These upgrades are expected to give a boost of $1.50 (per barrel of crude) on Essar Oil’s Gross Refinery Margin (GRM)—a measure of a refinery’s operational efficiency.

RK Malhotra, Director General, Petroleum Federation of India, said on the occasion, “The PetroFed Awards Committee and the Jury comprising of eminent people recommended the Vadinar Refinery of Essar Oil for the Refinery of the year award based on the evaluation parameters."

Hembala P Dixit, winner of PetroFed’s Woman Executive of the Year award, said, “I thank PetroFed for recognising my efforts. I am also grateful to Essar Oil that has helped me realise my potential through its focus on equal opportunity and gender equality.”