UpdatePetronas to ship first base oils this week

03 November 2008 09:14  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Malaysian state-owned energy major Petronas  expects to load its first cargo of group III base oils from its new 300,000 tonne/year base oils refinery in Malacca by Wednesday, said Joe Roumaniere, CEO of Petronas base oils on Monday.

 

The 3,000-tonne cargo of light neutral group III base oils will be shipped to a Petronas owned facility in Europe, he added.

 

On-spec production at the brand new base oils refinery was achieved 10 days ago as planned. Production rates at the plant, which uses ExxonMobil technology, will be ramped up to 100% by early 2010, Roumaniere added.

 

"Around 60% of the refinery’s production will be exported to the Americas and Europe and the balance would be sold in the Asian region", he said.

 

“It is fortunate that the company owns tank space and subsidiaries in Europe, given the current financial turmoil and the difficult logistics of base oils at present due to poor market sentiment and declining prices,” Roumaniere said.

 

However, the tight inter-regional freight markets are still a problem resulting in high freight rates out of Asia, he added.

 

Base oils prices in Asia have plunged 20-30% since early September on the back of the global markets turmoil as well as a collapse of crude values.

 

Base oils prices in Singapore were pegged at $1,160-1,260/tonne ex-tank in Singapore in the week ending 28 October, for the benchmark SN-150 grade according to global chemical market intelligence service ICIS pricing .

 

Key base oils producers in Asia include Exxon Mobil, Shell, SK Energy, S-Oil and Nippon Oil.

 

Asian predominantly uses group I/II base oils while the US and Europe mostly use group III base oils.

 

For more on base oils visit ICIS chemical intelligence

 

For more on Petronas  visit ICIS company intelligence

 

Please visit the complete ICIS plants and projects database  

 

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By: Anu Agarwal
+65 6780 4359

< previous article(ICIS Chemical Business podcast November 2, 2009)

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