A Polish oil refinery is building a new base oil plant that will produce Group II or Group III stocks, beginning late this year or early in 2005. The plant is being built by Rafineria Nafty Glimar S.A., which is being folded into state-owned Lotos Group, one of two large oil companies in Poland.
The plant will be located in the existing Glimar refinery complex in the southern city of Gorlice and will be able to produce Group II or Group III oil depending on feedstock, according to Marketing Specialist Boguslaw Borek. Using heavy vacuum gas oil mixed with wide kerosene fraction will yield a 100 neutral and 500 neutral with viscosity indices of 95 and 110, respectively. If fed standard-weight VGO and wide kerosene fraction, the plant can operate in one of two modes; the first produces a 150 neutral base oil with a viscosity index of 112, the second a 150 neutral with a viscosity index of 125.
Depending on the mode employed, Borek said, the plant will have capacity to produce up to 1,150 barrels per day of base oil.
In any mode, the Glimar plant will be the first in Poland to produce anything other than Group I base oil. Borek said Lotos will use some of the material in its own premium lubricants, blended at the same complex, and sell the rest to customers in Poland and abroad.
The plant will be equipped with isocracking, Isodewaxing and hydrofinishing units licensed from Chevron Lummus Global.
Rafineria Nafty Glimar is being merged into Lotos as part of a broader program to consolidate Polands petroleum industry. Glimar is one of five small refineries that will be combined with Lotos and PKN Orlen, the other large company.