Kazakh lube maker Hill Corp.s base oil production project has moved forward after a previous unsuccessful bid to find a contractor, the company told Lube Report last week.
Hill, in a partnership with state energy giant Kazmunaygas, in 2012 announced a tender for development of an API Group II and Group III base oil plant in Shymkent, southern Kazakhstan. The construction was scheduled to start by the beginning of 2013, according to a company official.
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The site for Hill Corp.’s planned API Group II and Group III base oil plant is in Shymkent, southern Kazakhstan, where the company has operated a 70,000 tons per year blending plant since 2010.
The 2012 tender was unsuccessful, and the company recently announced it is seeking a new engineering, procurement and construction partner. The project is expected to have annual capacity to process 500,000 tons of distillate fuel oil and to produce about 250,000 tons of Group I, Group II and Group III base oils annually, according to a company letter of intent obtained by Lube Report.
The plant will carry vacuum distillation and hydrotreating technology licensed from Chevron Lummus Global. It is expected to produce around 40,000 tons of Group I base oils, while the rest will be Group II and Group III, according to Nurshat Maratov, the chief of the companys marketing.
If the selection of the contractor is successful, the plants construction start is planned in 2017, Maratov said last week. The base oil plant will primarily supply our blending production, and the rest of the base oils will be exported to China, Iran and Russia.
Since 2010, Hill Corp. (High Industrial Lubricants and Liquids) has operated a 70,000 t/y blending plant in Shymkent.
The sites road and railway infrastructure is developed, and the facility will include automotive, truck and railway dispensing racks.