Base oil capacity in the United States totaled 218,000 barrels per day on Jan. 1, compared to 217,300 b/d a year earlier, according to American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers 2013 Lubricating Oil and Wax Capacities Report.
The report contains data on base oil and wax plants in the United States, Canada and Latin America.
U.S. virgin API Group I capacity was 63,600 b/d, Group II and III capacity totaled 106,300 b/d, and naphthenics capacity reached 48,100 b/d.
The publication lists locations, capacities, refinery configurations and ownership for 18 U.S. base oil and wax plants, plus three in Canada and two in Latin America. It is free to AFPM members and costs $35 for nonmembers. For ordering information, visit the AFPM Store at www.afpm.org.
The largest upcoming U.S. capacity change, the AFPM report notes, is still Chevrons planned Pascagoula, Miss., base oil facility, with estimated startup in the fourth quarter of 2013. According to Lube Report research, it is designed to have 25,000 b/d of Group II capacity.
Other new players are expected to join the North American market this year and next, by inaugurating rerefineries.
Juan Fritschy, CEO of Universal Environmental Services (Avista Oil USA), confirmed the company will commission its rerefinery in Peachtree City, Ga., from mid-April to mid-May. The rerefinery is expected to have capacity to process 30 million gallons of waste oil per year and to produce nearly 1,300 b/d of Group I and/or II base oil.
We will start producing on May 2, and we expect to be in full production by June 1, Fritschy told Lube Report.
NexLube Tampa plans to commission a rerefinery in the last quarter of 2013. The rerefinery is expected to process 24 million gallons of used oil annually and produce 20 million gallons of Group II base oil.
FCC Environmental early last year began engineering and site preparation work for a rerefinery in Baltimore. The start-up for the FCC refinery is currently projected for late Q4 2014, FCC Environmental Vice President Vincent Glorioso told Lube Report. We are going through the permitting and final engineering process, and believe the start-up date to be realistic.
Plans call for a plant that will process 40 million gallons of used motor oil annually. If the rerefinery is able to stick with crankcase materials as feedstock, the company anticipates roughly 75 percent will be rerefined into base oil, or about 30 million gallons per year.
The Baltimore facility is the first of several planned in the United States by the Houston-based waste oil collector, whose parent company is FCC of Madrid, Spain.