Stanlow Oil Refinery (Ellesmere Port)

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Stanlow Refinery is an oil refinery owned by Essar Energy www.essar.com/ in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, North West England. It was previously owned by Royal Dutch Shell until 2011. The refinery is situated on the south bank of the Manchester Ship Canal, which is used to transport seaborne oil and chemicals for Essar and Shell. Stanlow and Thornton railway station serves employees and visitors to the refinery.

Stanlow has a refining capacity of 12 million tonnes per year, the second largest in the United Kingdom after Fawley Refinery, and produces a sixth of the UK's petrol needs. The majority of output at Stanlow however is for commodities such as kerosene and bitumen.

Although situated in North West England, the refinery serves much of England as it is linked to Coryton Refinery in Essex through the UK oil pipeline network. Oil is delivered to Stanlow via ship where it is then refined stored at Eastham Oil Terminal and Tranmere Oil Terminal.

The refinery occupies nearly 1,900 acres (7.7 km2) near the River Mersey and dates back to 1924, when a small bitumen plant was established. In the 1970s an oil pipeline was constructed from Amlwch, Anglesey to Stanlow. Crude oil was pumped ashore from tankers moored at deep-water pontoons. The pipeline closed in the early 1980s.

Crude oil is now received lower down river on the Mersey at the Tranmere Oil Terminal, operated by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board from its Liverpool headquarters, and is transferred via a fifteen mile (24 km) pipeline to storage at Stanlow. Output is delivered by pipeline via the UK oil pipeline network, road and the Manchester Ship Canal.

In 2011, Stanlow was sold by Shell to Essar Energy for approximately $1.3 billion (£814m). Essar has stated their desire to expand the site with an 25% increase in output.

Storage capacity: 2 million tonnes of crude oil and products
Refining capacity: 12 million tonnes per year. The manufacturing complex employs 800 people.
Barrel per day output: 272,000 bbl/d (43,200 m3/d)
Product output
petrol 3 million tonnes
diesel 3.5 million tonnes
kerosene/jet fuel 2 million tonnes
LPG & petrochemical feedstocks 1.5 million tonnes
Fuel oil 1 million tonnes