Essar Oil to commission Vadinar refinery by April 2007

Mumbai, Sept 6 (UNI) Essar Oil today announced that it will start initial activity to commission its new refinery at Vadinar in Gujarat this October and complete the project by next April-end.

''We expect the first consignment of crude to arrive in third week of September to facilitate precommissioning activities to commence in October,'' said the company's release.

Essar's refinery at Vadinar will initially process 150,000 barrels per day (bpd) and gradually raising it to 210,000 bpd in the first part of next year.

Essar's USD 2.2 billion plant was delayed repeatedly but officials in late-July appeared confident of the October commissioning, saying they had already bought One million barrels of Algerian Saharan Blend crude for delivery later this month. ''Nowhere in the world, it has been possible to start all the units of a refinery concurrently,'' the release added.

''The operating units have to be commissioned sequentially. Our refinery is no exception,'' it added.

UNI SN KU AW1843