The just-completed expansion of ExxonMobil’s base oil plant on Singapore’s Jurong Island makes it the largest such facility in the world – by far.
The project, which involved construction of an additional production train, increased capacity at the Jurong Island site by 20,000 barrels per day to 51,900 b/d, according to Lubes’n’Greases Base Stock Plant Data. That’s 21% larger than the next-largest source, API Group II and III plant in Onsan, South Korea.
S-Oil’s plant had been the largest since 2014, when an expansion boosted its capacity to 41,500 b/d, nosing ahead of Motiva’s 40,300-b/d plant in Port Arthur, Texas, United States. Capacity at S-Oil’s plant was later increased to 42,800 b/d, its current level.
ExxonMobil’s Jurong Island plant was third-largest before the expansion, ahead of Qinghe Technology’s 28,300-b/d Group II and III plant in Zibo, China. Two plants tie for fifth place at 28,000 b/d: Qingyuan Group’s Group II plant, also in Zibo; and the Shell-Qatar Petroleum gas-to-liquids Group III joint venture in Ras Laffan, Qatar.
Rounding out the top ten are ExxonMobil’s 27,000-b/d Group I and II plant in Baytown, Texas, U.S.; GS-Caltex’s 26,000-b/d Group II and III plant in Yeosu, South Korea, and SK Enmove’s 26,000-b/d Group III plant in Ulsan, South Korea; and Chevron’s 25,000-b/d Group II plant in Pascagoula, Mississippi, U.S. SK’s plant was once the world’s second largest at 40,000 b/d, but it was consolidated in 2020.
The expansion at Jurong Island was part of a broader ExxonMobil project to upgrade heavy oil residue generated at the site. In the past the company processed it into marine bunker fuel, but global demand for that material dropped after adoption of the International Maritime’s IMO 2020, aimed at curbing the shipping industry’s release of greenhouse gases. The company said it developed proprietary technology to turn the residue into higher-value low-sulfur fuels and base stocks.
The new production train on Jurong Island makes three cuts, including a 33 centiStoke fluid that ExxonMobil describes as Group II bright stock. The plant becomes the first facility to make such a base oil at commercial scale.