Shell to ‘strike Stanlow deal with Essar’

INDIAN oil group Essar is expected to seal its acquisition of Royal Dutch Shell’s huge refinery at Stanlow, Ellesmere Port this month.

Press reports in India suggest Essar is the only bidder and a sale price of £220m has already been agreed.

Around 800 people work at Stanlow, which is the UK’s second-largest oil refinery. The 173-acre site processes 12 million tonnes of crude oil every year, mostly from the North Sea. It produces a sixth of the country’s petrol.

Stanlow and other sites in Germany and Canada are being sold as Shell shifts its focus in this “downstream” part of the business to China and Asia.

When it emerged that Shell was looking at selling the refinery in 2009, there was reportedly interest from bidders in India and the Middle East. A price tag of £1.5bn was initially suggested for Stanlow and the company’s two German refineries.