Essar Oil Ltd operates India’s second largest private sector refinery and has the largest private sector oil retail network. The company has reported robust growth across its refining and retail functions in FY 2016-17. The refinery throughput grew by almost 10% to 20.95 million tonne, compared to 19.10 million tonne in the previous fiscal. Retail sales went up by 75% to 2.8 million KL from 1.6 million KL in FY 2015-16. The retail network grew by almost 67%: Essar Oil had 3,499 operational outlets as on 31 March 2017, while 2,631 others were under various stages of implementation. At 2.8 million KL, the retail sales volume also increased significantly by 75%. Lalit Kumar Gupta, MD & CEO, Essar Oil, said: “This year, we achieved the highest ever throughput since the commencement of commercial operations at the Vadinar Refinery in May 2008. Our retail growth was quite remarkable and we received Platts’ Global Energy Award for Downstream Company of the Year in December. I congratulate the entire Essar Oil team for delivering such a stellar performance.” The company plans to double the number of petrol pumps targeting 5,600 in 12-18 months. Around Rs 1,200 crore is likely to be invested as per earlier media reports in the upgradation of certain units at the 20 million tonne Vadinar refinery in Gujarat.