Our Story

Our Locations

EET Fuels is investing in Stanlow, the world’s first low carbon process refinery. Located on a 770-hectare industrialised area of Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, Stanlow is strategically positioned near major north-west cities.

 

It plays a crucial role in the UK economy, supplying 16% of all road transport fuels and employing over 6,700 people directly and indirectly.

 

Crude oil is supplied to the refinery via a 15-mile pipeline from the company’s Tranmere facility. Stanlow’s optimised operation produces a significant proportion of middle distillates, mainly diesel and jet fuel, addressing the growing deficit in the UK and Europe.

Stanlow also contributes to Britain’s petrochemical industry, providing feedstocks such as toluene, propylene, and ethylbenzene. EET Fuels operates an integrated terminal and marine facility at Stanlow and Tranmere.

 

Stanlow has an efficient distribution capability for refined end products, with connections to the UK Oil Pipeline, Manchester Airport, and six berths on the Manchester Ship Canal.

 

Stanlow produces 4.4 billion litres of diesel, 3 billion litres of petrol, and 2 billion litres of jet fuel annually. It processes up to 9 million tonnes of crude every year and uses technologically advanced process units to produce a wide range of polymer and other products.

Our refinery operations

At Stanlow, 20,000 litres of crude oil pass thro`ugh the crude oil distillation unit every minute. The crude oil is heated and distilled in tall columns to separate it into different constituents known as 'fractions'.

Heaviest Fractions

Condense at the hottest temperatures near the bottom of the columns. These are upgraded in the catalytic cracker to produce petrol and diesel components or used as fuel in the refinery furnaces.

Middle Fractions

Include kerosene for jet fuel and gas oil for heating and diesel engines.

Lightest Fractions

Condense at the coolest temperatures near the top and include gases such as propane, butane, and naphtha. Some of these are further upgraded in Stanlow's catalytic reformer to produce petrol components and solvents.

Our key assets

  • The Catalytic Cracker

    The £200 million catalytic cracker complex uses advanced technology to break heavy fraction molecules into new hydrocarbon combinations for petrol, diesel, and chemical unit feedstocks. Energy from the cracker is harnessed by a power recovery train, the largest in Western Europe, generating 21 megawatts of electricity. This energy helps power the refinery and is also exported to the National Grid. Propylene produced is fed to the polypropylene plant at Carrington, near Manchester.

  • The Hydrodesulphuriser Plant

    This plant uses high temperature and pressure catalytic processes to remove sulphur from gas oil, which is then blended to make diesel. It was extensively refurbished in the late 1990s to launch the UK’s first low sulphur diesel ahead of EU requirements.

  • The Catalytic Reformer (Platformer)

    The catalytic reformer uses a platinum catalyst to upgrade light fractions by reducing their hydrogen content. The upgraded stream is used to make Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG), chemical-grade benzene and toluene, and high-octane petrol components. In 2000, the £30 million hydrotreater 2 and gasoline 3-cut splitter were built to enable robust production of low-sulphur petrol.

Our road terminal

The distribution of products from Stanlow is primarily via road and pipeline, with the remainder transported via the Manchester Ship Canal.

  • Road deliveries

    These are made from Stanlow’s distribution terminal, one of the busiest in Europe. A fleet of road tankers delivers products across the North West, reaching areas as far as Anglesey, Derby, York, and Carlisle, with some deliveries extending even further.

  • Operational hours

    The terminal operates 24 hours a day, 364 days a year, closing only on Christmas Day. The average loading time is approximately 17 minutes.

  • Industry-leading facilities

    Stanlow’s road terminal is one of the most modern in the country, featuring a sophisticated Terminal Automated Loading System (TAS). This system ensures safe, fast, and efficient loading operations, minimising gate-to-gate times and keeping vehicles on the road, thereby saving time and money.

  • Loading gantries

    All products are stored and pumped from the refinery to the loading gantry. The terminal has 17 loading gantries with 77 meters, all calibrated to H.M. Customs and Excise and Essar standards twice a year. The terminal also has significant spare capacity, providing supply resilience for the region.

  • Driver induction

    Over 800 drivers undergo an annual induction to load and operate from the terminal’s facilities.

Our waterfront - the Manchester Ship Canal

Located on the Manchester Ship Canal, the Stanlow waterfront is approximately 4.2 miles from the canal entrance at the Eastham Lock Complex. The facility consists of six berths used for importing and exporting oil products and chemicals, plus one non-operational waiting berth. Annually, these facilities handle around 600 ships.

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  • Berths

    Five of these berths are owned and operated by Stanlow Terminals Limited (STL) on behalf of EET Fuels. The other berth is a common user facility owned by the Manchester Ship Canal operated by STL. The berths are located on the Manchester Ship Canal and on Stanlow Island which is accessible by a 24-hour ferry service.

  • Ship capacity

    All product tankers are double-hull construction, ranging in size from 1,000 Dwt to 17,000 Dwt.

  • Types of ships

    The facility handles chemical carriers, product tankers, LPG gas tankers, and bunker barges.

  • Products handled

    Gasoline, naphtha, diesel, gasoil, kerosene, Jet A1, propane/butane, neodol, luboil, lubad, fuel residues, bitumen, fuel oil, wax, chemicals, and base oils.

  • Operations

    All vessels are scheduled to enter or leave the Manchester Canal at Eastham Locks around the high water period, as determined by the Canal Authorities upon request from canal users.

Stanlow’s crude oil, totalling 9 million tonnes annually, arrives via tanker at the Tranmere Terminal. Located on the west side of the River Mersey, Tranmere has been operational since 1960 and can handle cargo sizes up to 170,000 tonnes on partially laden Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs).

 

The terminal, with its North and South berths, unloads the oil to storage tanks and then pumps it 15 miles by pipeline to Stanlow. It also handles monthly import cargoes of Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel (ULSD), accommodating a total of 140 ships each year.
Stanlow refinery primarily processes North Sea Crude Oils, such as Forties, Ekofisk, Gullfacs, DUC, Brent, with increasing volumes from the Mediterranean and West Africa.

 

Vessels are scheduled to berth on high water tide only, with departure permitted either four hours or one hour before high water. At least two tugs are used for the berthing or unberthing of all crude oil tankers, with three in use for vessels over 50,000 tonnes dwt.

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Kingsbury Terminal

Kingsbury is a joint venture (JV) with Shell. Essar Midland Limited (EML) is a JV shareholder with Shell UK Limited of Kingsbury Terminal.

It has 14 tanks operated on a co-mingled product basis with a storage capacity of 101m litres. The terminal is pipeline fed and there are eight vehicle loading gantries, which allows approx. 220 road loadings daily.

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Northampton Terminal

Northampton Fuel Terminal is owned by Infrastructure North Limited (INL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Essar Midlands Ltd. It has eight main storage tanks, four horizontal ethanol storage tanks and a total storage capacity of 28.6m litres. The terminal is pipeline fed and there are five loading bays which allow approx. 80 road loadings daily.

Northampton Terminal currently stores gasoline, unleaded BOB, gasoline super unleaded and diesel. The terminal is operated for INL by px Group, who provides innovative operations management, engineering services and energy management solutions.

There are eight employees at Northampton, supported by contractors, operating in six shifts and running a 24-hour, 7-day a week operation, 52-weeks of the year.

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UK Oil Pipeline (UKOP)

As part of EET Fuels, Essar Midlands Limited is a shareholder in the UK Oil Pipeline (UKOP) system, which transports 9.5 billion litres of product annually. The pipeline connects import terminals on the Thames and EET Fuels’ Stanlow refinery to egress points in West London, Hemel Hempstead, Kingsbury, and a spur to the Northampton Terminal.

The pipeline is operated and maintained by the British Pipeline Agency (BPA) on behalf of UKOP. The ownership of UKOP is shared among five shareholders: Essar Midlands Limited, BP, Shell, Valero, and Total.

UKOP consists of two pipelines that link the Thames in the South with the Stanlow refinery in the North West, passing through terminals at Hemel Hempstead, Northampton, and Kingsbury.

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Carrington

Located on the Manchester Ship Canal, just upstream from the Cadishead Viaduct, is LyondellBasell’s polypropylene facility. This facility features a common user berth equipped to load or discharge propylene from ships, providing an alternative supply method if the normal pipeline from Stanlow is interrupted.

The jetty, owned by the Port of Manchester, operates under its regulations and bylaws. It is approved by H.M. Customs and Excise for the direct transfer of liquid gases via pipeline to on-site storage.