Global API Group II and III capacity spiked 13 percent in the past year while Group I capacity continued to shrink, the 2012 Guide to Global Base Oil Refining from LubesnGreases shows.
Published June 1 and mailed to all print-edition LubesnGreases subscribers, the Global Guide to Base Oil Refining lists nearly 160 base oil plants and rerefineries worldwide, identifying owners, locations, and capacities. The 2012 Guide reports total global capacity of 969,000 barrels per day, up 2 percent from last year.
High-quality Group II/III base oils now account for 37 percent of total capacity. In contrast, Group I capacity continues to decline – todays its just 54 percent of the global total, down from 68 percent only five years ago. Naphthenic oils account for the remaining 9 percent of global capacity.
Group I capacity dropped nearly 22,000 b/d in the past year to 522,400 b/d, and global naphthenic capacity remained unchanged at a bit over 88,000 b/d.
The biggest changes came in Group II capacity, that rose by 14,000 b/d, more than 5 percent, to 273,300 b/d; and in Group III, that shot up 45 percent to 85,200 b/d. The opening of the Shell-Qatar Petroleum gas-to-liquids plant in Qatar added 14,000 b/d of new Group II/III capacity, and the Neste-Bapco plant in Bahrain added 8,000 b/d of Group III. In just one year, the Middle East has become a key source of the worlds most highly refined base oils.
The surge in new Group II/III capacity has just begun, the Guides chart on upcoming capacity additions illustrates. Nearly 120,000 b/d of new capacity, all Group II/III, are slated to enter the market through 2014. Included on the list are 10,000 b/d from SK-JX Nippon Oil in Korea, 14,000 additional b/d from Shell-Qatar Petroleum, Chevrons 25,000 b/d Group II plant in Pascagoula, Miss., and 12,000 b/d from the Takreer-Neste project in Abu Dhabi, all due later this year or next year.
Included in the Guide are modern rerefineries, which are also seeing growth. In North America, rerefined base oil capacity rose 21 percent in the past year, to 11,600 b/d, with another 4,300 b/d scheduled to stream over the next two years. The Guide includes only those rerefineries using hydrotreating or solvent refining processes and with capacities of 800 b/d or greater.
LubesnGreases annual Guide to Global Base Oil Refining is compiled by managing editor Lisa Tocci, in close cooperation with Pathmaster Marketing Ltd. in the U.K.
This Guide is the first of three base stock guides from LNG Publishing Co. The companion Nonconventional Base Stock Guide (esters, PIB, silicone, PAG, PAO and more) will be published in September, and in July LubesnGreases Europe-Middle East-Africa will provide its readers with a base stock guide for the EMEA regions.
For more information or to order copies, see www.LNGpublishing.com/BaseStockGuide/index.cfm.