Chevron is in the midst of a six-week turnaround at its Richmond, Calif. refinery, which has capacity to make 15,000 barrels per day of Group II and Group III paraffinic base stocks.
A buyer said the turnaround began in mid-January and was scheduled to run through March 1. A Chevron official said the company does not anticipate any impact on the base oil side from a Jan. 15 fire within the crude separating unit at the refinery.
The event will have no impact on our ability to supply base oil to our customers on the west coast, the official said. We have been preparing for this shutdown for a long time, so weve got lots of inventory.
Posted prices for paraffinic base oils in the United States were unchanged the past week. Crude closed at $56.87 per barrel yesterday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, according to Bloomberg. That was $1.93 above the price a week ago.
Historic U.S. posted base oil prices and WTI and Brent crude spot prices are available for purchase in Excel format.