Base Oils II - The Next Level: Product Quality and Global Profitability
If you already know the difference between Group I, Group II and Group III base oils, but aren't sure of their product applications or key global suppliers, then Base Oils II can provide that understanding and background. A complication in the base oil world is the vast difference in supply quality between Europe, Asia, North America, the Middle East, and other regions. Additionally, each region and each type of manufacturing has a different set of manufacturing economics. The base oils market currently faces an imbalance between the types of base oils refined versus types of base oils grades required for finished lubricants. Understanding the different factors causing this imbalance of supply and demand will help clarify the base oils market situation. Knowledge of industry drivers for next generation finished lubricants requirements, along with technical details around base oil viscosity - volatility relationships, will give you a better understanding of what the future holds.
Not right for you? Try our Base Oils I course.
All of our Base Oils courses are also available in-house. Find out more
Benefits to you and your company:
Understanding the base oils product offerings of major suppliers around the world and how these products are used to formulate different types of oil applications will help you function more effectively in the base oils market.
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By the end of the course, you will learn about:
- Base oil quality: IIncludes detailed product quality measurements for base oils, the critical relationship between viscocity, volatity and VI, and typical base oil grades used in consumer automotive, commercial automotive and industrial oil applications.
- Base oil manufacturing economics: Includes a class exercise comparing economics for similar sized Group I, Group II and Group III plants similar to today's global manufacturing operations.
- Critical issues facing today’s global market: These include regional supply and demand imbalances, shortfalls in heavy neutrals and Bright Stock, and a global oversupply of Group I light neutrals.
- Product quality comparisons: These will highlight the differences between the major suppliers of Group I, II, III and PAOs.
- Outlook: Future trends and an assessment of the outlook for traditional Group I base oils are covered.
Hands-on practice:
During the course there will be reviews of the presentations and an exercise on base oil manufacturing economics to help check and reinforce understanding.
Course fees:
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Morning
REGISTRATION AND REFRESHMENTS
Welcome, safety & housekeeping announcements
I. Refresher: base oils crash course
- Technology and terminology
- Naming conventions and viscosity labels
- Key base oil properties and where they’re controlled
- API Groups: the detailed definitions
II. VI and Volatility: base oil quality keys
- The technical details of viscosity index (VI)
- Volatility – another property to know about
- VI – Volatility – Viscosity relationships
REFRESHMENTS / Q&A
III. Viscosity and Temperature: Highs and Lows
- What is viscosity and how do we measure it?
- When high and low temperature viscosity is important and how we control it
- Major Suppliers: Group III / III+ qualities
- Putting it all together: SAE J-300 Engine Oils
IV. Base oil qualities by API Grouping
- Major Suppliers: Group II / II+ qualities
- Major Suppliers: Groroup I qualities
- Major Suppliers: Gup III / III+ qualities
- GTL and PAO: quality nirvana
LUNCH / Q&A
Afternoon
V. Base Oil Refinery Profitability
- Profit basics: revenues less expenses
- Crude price versus fuel and base oil prices
- By products from the base oil plant
VI. Class exercise: Base Oil Profitability
- Team A: Group I plant in Europe
- Team B: Group II plant in the USA
- Team C: Group III plant in Asia
REFRESHMENTS/OPEN FORUM Q&A
VII. Global supply - demand balancing
- New construction: more base oil plants coming
- Supply overhang, global rebalancing
- Supply – demand balance and the fate of Group I base oils
Course evaluations & feedback
End of programme
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Amy Claxton
Amy Claxton, P.E. is a registered professional Chemical Engineer and owns a consulting company called My Energy. Her clients include publicly traded and privately held oil, gas, lube and wax companies, as well... read more
Dr. H. Ernest Henderson
Dr. H. Ernest Henderson received a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Windsor in 1977, after which he spent 19 years with Imperial Oil and Exxon in technical and managerial positions involving Research... read more
Terry Hoffman
Terry Hoffman is a base oil marketing and operations oriented professional with over 40 years of experience.
He owns a consulting company called thoffmanllc and his clients include publicly traded and... read more
Read more about our course leaders.
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- New and experienced base oil marketing and sales staff, and those in support functions such as supply, accounting, planning and logistics
- New and experienced finished lubricant buyers and sellers
- New and experienced personnel in the terminalling, storage and shipping industry
- Base oil refiners, additive suppliers, finished lubricant formulators and other technical staff who want to broaden their knowledge of base oil product qualities and the overall base oil industry
- Senior oil industry executives who are new to base oils or finished lubricants
- Personnel in equity firms in the energy sector who are involved in base oil or finished lubricant evaluations
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