The refinery is situated on the south bank of the Manchester Ship Canal, which is used to transport seaborne oil for refining and chemicals for Essar.

[10] Stanlow & Thornton railway station was opened in 1940 to give workers access to the site and the facility an extra mode of transport.

However, this station is now only served by three trains daily towards each of Ellesmere Port (westbound) and Helsby (eastbound), with these services scheduled to depart at times which would be inconvenient for the workers.

In 2010, Royal Dutch Shell declared their desire to sell off some refineries in Europe to concentrate on emerging markets in Asia and the Middle East, which led to the possibility that Stanlow would be shut down indefinitely.

[14] After a prolonged period of negotiation, Stanlow was sold by Shell to Essar Energy for approximately $1.3 billion (£814 million) in 2011.

[22][23] Stanlow operator, Essar Oil UK, changed its trading name to EET Fuels in January 2024 and announced that $1.2 billion would be allocated to support the refinery’s industrial decarbonisation.

[24] In July 2024, EET Fuels announced its plan to build Europe’s first hydrogen-ready combined heat and power plant at Stanlow, which is currently scheduled for completion in 2027 and operational by 2028 or 2029.

[21] In the same month, it was reported that the refinery plans to invest in infrastructure and extra capacity to increase its national footprint.

In 1969 Shell-Mex & BP opened a £3 million joint venture bulk hydrocarbon liquid distribution centre at Haydock, Lancashire (53.47764 N, 2.65983 W).

Upon arrival at the terminal road tankers  were directed automatically to an empty stand where filling took place from an overhead gantry.

This included development and rebuilding of the distribution centre adjacent to the Stanlow refinery and at the oil terminal at Shell Haven in Essex.