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Indian refiner and bunker supplier Essar Oil, has been conferred the 'Refinery of the Year Award 2011' by the Petroleum Federation of India (PetroFed), in recognition of its performance in the Indian refining sector last year.

The award was received by Mr. C. Manoharan, Director – Refinery, Essar Oil, from the Honorable Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mr. S Jaipal Reddy, during the Annual Petroleum Federation Oil and Gas Industry awards held in New Delhi.

The award acknowledges production and operational efficiencies in refining performance during the fiscal 2010-11 period. The company won a trophy and a citation for excellence in its refining performance.

"Essar Oil’s Vadinar refinery today accounts for 10 percent of India’s total refining capacity. We are humbled by this recognition by PetroFed. It is our endeavour to create value for customers in the oil and gas sector, through world class operating standards and state-of-the-art technology,” said Mr. LK Gupta, managing director and CEO, Essar Oil.

The Refinery of the Year category was one of nine categories at the PetroFed awards, an industry association representing companies from India's public and private companies in the oil and gas sector.

Only last week Essar Oil completed its Refinery Optimization Project four months ahead of schedule, taking the capacity of its Vadinar refinery to 20 million metric tonnes per annum (mmtpa), or 405,000 barrels per day, thus making it India’s second largest single location refinery.

In March, Essar Oil completed the Refinery Expansion Project to raise Vadinar's nameplate capacity to 18 mmtpa, up from 10.5 mmtpa.