Essar marks a decade and a half of Stanlow refinery ownership

Essar Group celebrates a fifteen‑year milestone since acquiring the Stanlow Manufacturing Complex, one of the UK’s most strategic energy assets. Over the past decade and a half the group has spent £1 billion on a comprehensive revamp, converting the plant to a more efficient single‑train layout, increasing its capability to handle diverse crude grades and refurbishing the catalytic cracker. A recent £10 million turn‑around programme lifted throughput by about eight percent, while a £7.09 million injection enabled the launch of Britain’s first hydrogen‑ready refinery furnace. The refinery underpins roughly 5,000 direct and indirect jobs and injects £426 million annually into the British supply chain. Future plans include strengthening refining capacity, adding 800 retail outlets fed directly from the complex, and rolling out £4.3 billion of projects such as a cutting‑edge data centre powered by on‑site hydrogen‑ready electricity.