Also new this year, weve included details on upcoming capacity additions, including nine new plants and two expansions that together will add nearly 109,000 b/d of capacity to the global total between now and 2011.

We calculate that existing global capacity is 937,245 b/d; it soon will top 1 million b/d as promised additions come on stream. The Asia-Paci?c region, including China, Japan, Korea and the countries of South and Southeast Asia together have 29 percent of the worlds base oil capacity, edging out North America with 28 percent. They are followed by Western Europe (17 percent) and Central and Eastern Europe (15 percent).

I hesitate to draw comparisons between the 2007 Guide and last years, as the latest Guide includes nearly 25,000 b/d of rere?ned oils, most in Europe but also in North America and Indonesia, a category that was not covered in 2006. We believe that each year our reporting is increasingly accurate, particularly for re?neries in China and Russia, thanks to the efforts of David Whitby at Pathmaster Marketing and project editor Tim Sullivan.

The 2007 Guide to Base Oil Re?ning is a colorful 33-by-22-inch wall chart listing worldwide re?neries by company name and location, and providing details on capacity by product type and API Group. The Guide is enclosed with this issue for print edition subscribers.

Please visit www.LNGpublishing. com/base.htm for information about ordering copies. The companion 2007 Guide to Nonconventional Base Stocks (esters, silicones, PIBs, PAGs, phosphate esters, PAO, GTL and more) will be published in September.

Correction

A map on page 26 of Aprils issue was mislabeled. The body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran is the Persian Gulf.