The article is a case study on Essar Oil’s Vadinar Refinery in Gujarat. In the wake of the decision to divest the stake to Rosneft group of Russia, the Ruia’s-led Essar Group were interested to present a portrayal of the financial profitability and socio-economic importance of their refinery project at Vadinar. The project was assigned to the authors towards evaluation. The analysis assumes significance as refinery is a strategic sector, and there lies immense potential for Indian refiners to attain sustainable competitive advantage through economies of scale and adoption of most advanced technologies to process sour crude of the highest complexity, thus, producing the cleanest fuels in multiple distillates. Using a social cost–benefit approach, the article evaluates the financial viability and socio-economic contribution of the refinery at Vadinar at the local and regional level, focusing on multiplier effect of income, tax and savings generated, including other externalities. The present findings would assist in policy implications for the strategic investment in refinery operations as well as building a template for future researchers interested to explore the economic aspect of oil refineries from welfare perspective.
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