The UK is leading the world in green energy

The roof of an industrial building in the North West reveals a landscape of fields, smoke-belching chemical plants and a smoky sky. One horizon is the Welsh hills, another is the River Mersey with Cammell Laird Shipyard.

The autumn sun is shining in Cheshire, and Indian billionaire Prashant Rouia’s mood is just as bright. He wraps his arm around my shoulders and points out the enormous tangles of steaming pipes, flare chimneys, and cooling towers which make up Britain’s 2nd-largest oil refinery.

He beams and stretches his arm in a theatrical gesture. “We will decarbonise all of North West.”

Ruia is 55 years old and the chief executive of Essar Group. The “Ruia Brothers” were founded by his father Shashi, and uncle Ravi. Their rollercoaster fortunes have been the stuff of legends.

In 2011, Shell bought the Stanlow Refinery, which was in a very poor state of repair. Ruia claims to have invested $1 billion since then, but the 100-year old plant that produces 16 percent of UK fuel is still in need of repair. Many of the pipes are leaking, and its distillation columns, which turn crude oil into diesel, petrol, and jet fuel, are heavily rusted. It is decommissioned in large parts and has rusted into weeds.

If you look closer, however, you will see Ruia’s excitement for the future. A brand new refinery emerges from scaffolding in the distance. Its silver towers contrast with the dark rusty hulk of the 1960s.

The refinery will be the first in the UK to switch to hydrogen instead of CO2-emitting gases.

Ruia: “And that is just the beginning.” If everything goes according to plan and the government supports the project, the family plans to install carbon-capture technologies in other parts the refinery. They will then pump the carbon into deep underground gas fields under the Liverpool Bay seabed.

Essar is moving forward with the design of Stanlow refinery, which could be operated solely on hydrogen within the near future.

Essar must first build a hydrogen production plant. Ruia has numbers for each topic, including “350 megawatts”. If all goes well, the second hydrogen plant should follow. Gas that is not used at the refinery can be piped into nearby factories such as Encirc’s bottle-making factory to decarbonise them.

Ruia and Essar’s Energy Transition (EET) arm are the private sector enablers in the Northwest of the government’s GB Energy Plan to deliver clean energy by 2030. Only a few months ago, Sir Keir starmer announced a cool £21.7billion of state funding to these projects. A similar “cluster”, in Humberside, was also funded by the Downing Street Circus.

Ruia states, “These are some of the largest projects in the world.” There is no country in the world today that has a policy as clear and fast-moving. “I don’t believe people give Britain enough credit for its strides.”

Ruia’s charm is so convincing that it’s impossible not to fall for him. My grandmother would have warned me that he could charm birds out of the trees.

You’d never guess that this billionaire has a Mayfair mansion as big as a hotel. He wears fleece branded with his company, chinos, and desert boots. It’s possible that he has been hanging out at his family’s factories, construction sites and ports since he was 11.

He began working in the business at 16 and, by 17, was managing his first project. This was building a 3-km-long railway bridge in Mumbai suburbs. He explains that they didn’t wait until you were older before giving you responsibility. “You’re in the deep end.”

A 17-year old running a large public infrastructure project? Really? “Yes, there were experienced people on site, but I was there with the project manager almost all the time.” “We would spend days and nights on the site for two whole years.”

He adds: “We built it, and, um, we lost some money.”

A lot of money in fact, about $250,000 He was not a happy man. Instead, he said that it was the best money he had ever lost. When you learn to manage money when you are losing it, you will truly understand the art of managing. I was scrounging every penny, and had made every effort.

The Ruias were among the insanely rich Indians who became wealthy when India liberalised the highly controlled “Licenceraj” economy at the beginning of the 1990s.

Ruia: “I witnessed the change.” We took off as family when the market opened. We were a direct beneficiary.”

His childhood was fairly middle-class and ordinary. The family lived on the east coast of India in Chennai (formerly Madras), where there were “no great amenities” at that time. After school we would spend hours on the cricket field. The town was small, so everyone knew each other.”

They all lived together in the same home. They have never been able to break the habit. The Ruias still live together in Mumbai on the westcoast, in the same house, with their brothers, sisters and aunts, uncles and nephews.

It is not a normal home. Former colleague describes it as “vast”. Each has a floor. Ruia smiles wryly: “We have some space in our house.”

There are also other huge Ruia houses in Mumbai, Delhi, and London. One of them, a £113 million home in Regent’s Park, was just acquired. It’s clear that they aren’t bumping into each other.

Stanlow’s hydrogen project is a welcome departure from the usual Ruias headlines of a few short years ago. The site almost went bankrupt during Covid when lockdowns grounded 40 of its airline customers, and few car owners bought its petrol.

Essar was able to defer paying its £356million VAT bill, even though it had taken hundreds of millions in dividends from the company in previous years. Deloitte’s auditor, who complained about “control and governance”, resigned. Newspapers like this one were not very positive.

Prashant smiles for the first ever time as we sit down in a conference room following our rooftop excursion. I mention: “We are disappointed with the media’s portrayal of their views. At that time, I don’t believe they had all of the facts. I don’t believe they realized that all [refineries] lost a huge amount of money and yet kept the lights on. “We kept our employees on and paid them all through the period, even though we lost a lot of money.”

But it wasn’t only the media that had a skewed view. Deloitte, one of the largest auditing firms on the planet, had a damning opinion. Freshfields, a Magic Circle law firm, also resigned from the account.

He replies, “Look,” “We’ve answered this all enough times.” Before declining to elaborate, he said that it was a time when the situation wasn’t clear. Essar issued a later statement saying that “there were fundamental differences of opinions among some of the advisers regarding the long-term viability of our business in light of the pandemic.” These questions were addressed later.”

The VAT bill has been paid in full and the business is thriving.

Essar Energy’s assets include ports, refineries, gas fracking operations, and other Indian and Stanlow assets.

Ruias are no strangers to rough patches. In the 1990s their Essar steel arm defaulted on $250 million in foreign currency loans — an embarrassing first for India.

In a desperate attempt to pay off their debts, they sold large pieces of the empire – from its mobile phone operation to its steel mills – in an effort to “deleverage”, as financial-speak is called.

The figures show just how large the Ruia Empire was. Vodafone purchased the Ruia family’s 33 percent stake in their Indian joint-venture for $5 billion. And that was only one sale: “We delevered our balance by more than 20 billion dollars,” Ruia recalled. “Was the experience emotional?” Was it hard? It was difficult.

He is an eternal optimist, however (“If you could bottle this optimism, you’d also be a billionaire,” says a former colleague), so he concluded: “Looking at it now, we had the opportunity to invest much more heavily into this energy transformation now.” This has provided us with an opportunity to make these investments.

Essar Energy gets most of its revenue from the UK but you shouldn’t expect to see a London stock exchange flotation anytime soon. In 2010, the Ruias floated the company on the London Stock Exchange, raising £1.2 billion. The business was valued at £5.4 billion. As the Indian economic miracle faded, shares fell. After floating at 420p per share, four years later the Ruias purchased it for 70p each, despite protests from minority shareholders.

One City investor says, “They wouldn’t welcome them back.” Ruia wants to be seen now as a force of good in Britain. She is helping decarbonise industrial North West. Prashant made a big green bet. I wonder if he and his father, both aged 81 and 75, who spent decades making billions on the dirty steel and energy industries would have approved.

Prashant is certain: “It may have taken them a bit longer to understand, but they now get it at 200 per cent.” Not 100 per cent. This is a real thing, and not a mere idea. It’s happening.”