Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. intends to install a base oil unit and a finished lubricant blending plant at its refinery in Bina, India. To do so, the company called for bids from a consultant to oversee the project and pick the technology licensor, according to Indian media.
BPCL currently operates a base oil plant in Mumbai with capacity to produce 450,000 metric tons per year of API Group II oils.
The company wants to integrate the new lube oil base stock unit with its hydrocracker with an aim to produce high quality-premium grade base oils. Hydrocrackers are usually used to make Group II or Group III oils.
The capacity envisaged for the base stock unit is 200,000 t/y, while the lubricant blending plant would have capacity of 25,000 t/y.
BPCL has a number of blending plants in the country including Wadilube Installation, one of India’s largest and oldest blending plants; Budge Budge near Kolkata; Tondiarpet in Chennai and Loni, which supplies the northern region.
India’s public sector undertaking oil companies have gone on a base oil investment splurge in recent years. Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. and Hindustan Oil Corp. Ltd. announced project that would more than double domestic base oil production capacity to 2.9 million t/y by 2028. Now BPCL has joined the movement.
India is the world’s third-largest finished lubricant market, after the United States and China. It has for years been one of the biggest base oil importers, too, but the announced projects – if completed – will greatly reduce that foreign dependency. The Indian refiners have already begun approaching potential customers in other countries to offer exports of their own base oils.