Essar Group today said it will invest $400 million in upgrading the refinery it had bought in Kenya.
"The Mombasa refinery is currently operating at 1.6 million tonnes a year against a capacity of 3.7 million tonnes," Essar Petroleum (East Africa) Chief Executive Officer Alok Mathur said.
"We expect to operate at full capacity in two to three years."
Essar, had in July completed acquisition of 50 per cent stake in Kenya's only oil refinery at Mombasa, almost 19 months after it entered into an agreement with Shell Petroleum Co, Chevron Global Energy Inc and BP Africa for an undisclosed amount, Mathur said.
Essar will build a captive power plant at the refinery to take care of the disruption in power supplies, he said. The Kenyan government holds the remaining 50 per cent share in the refinery operated by Kenya Petroleum Refineries.
The acquisition gives Essar direct access to market its petroleum products both from the Kenya refinery as well as from its Indian refinery in coastal Gujarat.
Essar Oil currently operates a 14-million tonnes refinery in Gujarat, and plans to expand it to 34 million tonnes by December 2011.