Citgo Petroleum Corp. announced Dec. 19 that it has completed its purchase of Conocos 35 percent stake in their Cit-Con Oil Corp. joint venture.
The companies did not disclose the price of the sale, which gives Citgo 100 percent ownership of the alliances base oil and wax refinery in Lake Charles, La. The plant has capacity to produce 9,600 barrels per day of Group I base stock and 2,000 b/d of wax. As an extension of Citgos Lake Charles Manufacturing Complex, it will now be referred to as the lubricants area of the complex.
Citgo reiterated its commitment to upgrade the base oil and wax refinery. When the deal was announced in August, the Tulsa, Okla., company said it wanted to make the refinery more efficient and would consider supplying it in the future with feedstock from its parent company, Petroleos de Venezuela, the national oil company of Venezuela. A spokeswoman said last week that managementhas not yet formulatedspecific plans for the upgrade.
Houston-based Conoco is still in the base oil business as a partner in Excel Paralubes, a 50-50 joint venture with Pennzoil-Quaker State Co. The Excel Paralubes refinery in West Lake, La., is the second-largest in North America, with capacity to produce 21,500 b/d of Group II base stock.Excel Paralubes built its hydrocracker in 1995 and beganshipping hydro-isomerized base stocks in 1997. The Cit-Con joint venture lasted more than 45 years.