CPC to set up base oil plant in Vietnam or China

State-owned Taiwanese refiner CPC Corp. announced that it may build a NT$10 billion (US$304.26 million) base oil plant in Vietnam or China. The plant would be capable of producing 300,000 to 500,000 tons of lubricants a year. The construction of the plant is in preparation for the government-ordered 2015 shutdown of its 220,000 barrel per day refinery and base oil unit, in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan. CPC is leading a joint venture with local companies to develop the Kuo Kuang Petrochemical Park project in central Taiwan, which will replace the lost capacity, but that project may not be ready before 2015, CPC’s Business Division Chief Executive C. Yen said. CPC is currently prevented by Taiwan’s regulations to invest in China, but “that doesn’t mean that in the future we won’t be able to invest,” Yen added. However, CPC already sent a delegation in May to PetroVietnam and in June to the Quanzhou refinery in China’s Fujian province, to study the refinery conditions there so the company has yet to decide where the base oil plant will be built. (June 5, 2009)