Petrobras, Brazils state-controlled oil company, said it will reschedule a maintenance turnaround at the base oils plant of its Duque de Caxias refinery in Rio de Janeiro for this month or next. The company has also postponed from 2013 to 2015 the scheduled completion date for plans to upgrade a train at Duque de Caxias from API Group I to Group II capability.
Renato Oliveira, lubricant coordinator for Petrobras, said the company postponed a scheduled turnaround after a stoppage in June, and then again after a worker strike in July. In July there was a strike with the contractors in front of the refinery, Oliveira explained. The contractors had to be transported using a river beside the refinery to access it.
He said the company has higher base oil inventories at the refinery now than it did in June. The maintenance work will be done in October or November, depending on the conditions, Oliveira told Lube Report. People think it could be done within about 30 days time. It not only affects the base oil supply, but also the fuels for the refinery, as it also produces a lot of aviation fuels.
Currently the plant has Group I capacity of 12,000 b/d.
After the train update, the Reduc Refinerys Group II capacity will be 12,000 barrels per day, Wlamir Soares Nogueira, Petrobras Internationals senior consultant for refining and petroleum – technical support, told Lube Report. So the total base oil production at this refinery in 2015 will be 18,000 b/d – 12,000 b/d of Group II and 6,000 b/d of Group I. We are thinking about producing a small quantity of Group III base oil in the same hydrocracking unit, but we will have to check this opportunity in the future.