Adnoc base oil plant to stream later this year

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.’s (ADNOC) base oil plant will be on stream by the end of this year, according to information provided by the Abu Dhabi Oil Refining Co. or Takreer, ADNOC’s refining arm, during the Abu Dhabi International Downstream conference, which was held from 10-12 May in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The base oil plant is part of the USD 10 billion-investment program to boost the capacity of and quality of petroleum products from Ruwais, which is located about 240 kilometres west of Abu Dhabi City.

Early this year, Takreer brought onstream an additional 417,000 barrels per day of capacity at the Ruwais refinery. The expansion boosted Takreer’s overall refining capacity to nearly 1 million barrels per day. The investment program is part of ADNOC’s efforts to diversify and upgrade the quality of its products to meet the requirements of Asia’s burgeoning transport sector. Much of the output is geared towards diesel fuel production to meet demand in the region and in Asia, according to Energy Aspects, a consulting group based in the U.K.

By the end of the year, ADNOC’s 600,000-tonne-per-year base oil refinery, in which Finland’s Neste Oil was supposed to have been a partner, will finally stream. Neste Oil backed out of the project and the project, which was supposed to be on line by 2013 experienced significant delays, raising doubts in the industry whether it would happen at all.

Takreer said the Ruwais refinery will have the capacity to produce up to 500,000 tonnes of Group III base oil and 100,000 tonnes of Group II base oil per year. Europe and North America, which have the technical requirements for these high quality base oils due to more stringent emissions and fuel economy requirements in these markets, are the target destinations for these products.