Essar Oil in demand

Essar Oil rose 2.01% to Rs 241.50 at 14:27 IST on BSE after its subsidiary Essar Exploration & Production, Mauritius bagged an offshore oil and gas block in Vietnam’s Song Hong basin.
Meanwhile, BSE Sensex was up 108.68 points or 0.67% to 16,448.21, as expectations of a US interest rate cut strengthened
On BSE, 35.69 lakh shares were traded in the counter. The scrip had an average daily volume of 60.05 lakh shares in the past one quarter.
The stock hit a high of Rs 242.40 and a low of Rs 236 so far during the day. The stock had a 52-week high of Rs 360 on 1 January 2008 and had touched a 52-week low of Rs 47.80 on 6 August 2007.
The mid-cap scrip outperformed the market over the past one month till 4 March 2008, gaining 1.15% compared to the Sensex’s fall of 12.44%. It underperformed the market in the past one quarter, declining 21.10% compared to Sensex’s decline of 17.22%.
The company’s current equity is Rs 1201.45 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.
Essar Oil, after market hours on Tuesday, 4 March 2008 said that the block admeasuring approximately 5925 square kilometer was awarded under a recent licensing round where 7 offshore blocks were on offer. It is a shallow water block with average water depth of 60 to 70 metres.
Essar Oil is in the process of consolidating its upstream exploration & production activities under its proposed subsidiary, Essar Exploration & Production. Once this exercise is completed, Essar Oil will have eight oil & gas blocks and one coal bed methane block.
Meanwhile as per reports on 4 March 2008, the company’s 2.10 lakh barrels per day refinery in Vadinar, Gujarat is running at full capacity ahead of planned schedule of end-March 2008.
On 15 January 2008, Essar Oil’s subsidiary Essar Energy Overseas entered into an agreement to acquire 50% stake in Kenya Petroleum Refineries in Mombasa, Kenya. Essar Energy Overseas will acquire the stake from Shell Petroleum, Chevron Global and BP Africa. The Kenyan government holds the remaining 50% stake in the project.
Kenya Petroleum Refineries (KPRL) is a four million metric tonnes per annum (MMTPA) refinery. Its products are sold into the Kenyan market and exported to neighboring countries including Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda. Demand for petroleum products in these markets is estimated at five million tonnes per annum.
Essar Oil has three main divisions -- energy, offshore exploration and petroleum products. Its offshore division undertakes construction related to the oil industry for extraction of oil and/or gas reserves.
Essar Oil reported a net loss of Rs 13.40 crore in Q3 December 2007 as against net profit of Rs 0.12 crore in Q3 December 2006. Net sales rose 7.20% to Rs 147.03 crore in Q3 December 2007 over Q3 December 2006.