Essar Oil (UK) Ltd, which owns and operates UK’s Stanlow Refinery, has reported its highest-ever half-year net profit of $169 million due to record margins and operational efficiencies.

The net profit of $169 million (Rs 1,082.61 crore) in April-September was 231 per cent higher than $51 million in the same period a year ago, CEO S Thangapandian said today from London.

“We had a record half-year EBITDA and net profit as the market has been good and units have been run very very efficiently,” he said.

EBITDA or pre-tax profit more than doubled to $264 million. “A strong operational performance, supported by product cracks, has enabled us to post record figures for a half-year period and again improve our delta over the benchmark margin,” he said.

The company earned a record $11 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel compared to a current price gross refining margin of $7.6 per barrel in H1 FY2017. He said innovations were made to increase high-value transport fuel throughput. Jet fuel production has been increased to 135-140 kilo tonnes per month from 120 KT a month previously.

Essar, he said, will complete the $250-million investment in the expansion of the refining capacity by the first quarter of next year. Investment in the revamping of certain units of the refinery would help cut down on crude oil processing cost, improve product slate and lead to marginal increase in capacity.

Refinery capacity would increase from 68 million barrels to 75 million barrels by March 2018, the CEO said.

The firm, controlled by Ruia-family of Mumbai that sold Essar Oil to Russia’s Rosneft for $12.9 billion, has 46 petrol pumps in the UK currently and is targeting 400 in five years. The company has also entered into the direct aviation fuel supply market, selling the fuel produced at Stanlow to major airlines such as Emirates, Etihad, Jet2.com and Oman Air.

Thangapandian said the company leased a storage in Rotterdam, together with blending and jetty infrastructure, in order to cater to gasoline export markets directly. Essar has invested over $800 million since acquiring Stanlow in July 2011.