Essar Oil Ltd. (EOL) reported its highest quarterly gross revenues, which amounted to Rs221.09 billion (US$4.1 billion) for the first quarter of FY 2013, up by 34% from Rs16,478 crore (US$3 billion) during the same period last year, due mainly to higher product prices on account of increased domestic sales and the depreciation of the rupee. Phase 1 of the company’s optimization project at the Vadinar Refinery was completed four months ahead of schedule on June 5, 2012. The refinery now has a total capacity of 405,000 barrels per day (20 MMTPA). L.K. Gupta, managing director and CEO of EOL said: “With the completion of our optimization project during the quarter, we have significantly moved up in the refining value chain and our world class assets have begun delivering value to our stakeholders. Benefits of higher capacity and complexity have already begun reflecting in our results. We are very happy to report highest ever quarterly revenues at Rs22,109 crore (US$4.1 billion), and significant improvement of GRMs over the benchmark margins. Going forward, we are confident of maintaining the momentum of improved GRMs, given the full benefit of our expansion will accrue from current quarter onwards.” (August 14, 2012)