Essar Energy has no plans to close its Stanlow oil refinery in Britain, the company said, in response to a newspaper report that the troubled plant is under threat from “uneconomic conditions”.

Shares of the company fell as much as 4.5 per cent.

City AM, a free newspaper distributed in London’s financial district, reported that the future of Britain’s second-largest oil refinery was under threat from an influx of refined products from the US.

Essar Energy’s largest shareholder, Essar Global Fund, wants the UK government to lobby Washington to overturn a ban on US crude oil and natural gas exports, the newspaper reported, without citing any sources.

Essar Energy said in a statement that it had embarked on a $100 million cost improvement programme at Stanlow to ensure the plant could withstand a period of “exceptionally poor” refining margins.

“With reference to recent press reports, Essar Energy denies that it has any plans to close its Stanlow refinery,” the company said in a statement.

A company spokesman said the statement was a response to the City AM report.