Base Oils I: Fundamentals of the Base Oils Business

07:00 Welcome and introduction to the course

07:05 Crude and Refining Overview

• What are base oils? Who makes them?
• Crude types, pricing, and valuation
• Crude for base oils vs. fuels refining

8:00 Base Oil Refining: Solvent Processing

• Base oil refining: definitions and terminology
• Historical technology: solvent processing
• Example: Arab Light 95 VI via solvent processing

9:00 Break

9:10 Base Oil Refining: Hydroprocessing

• Hydroprocessing terms and general overview
• Newer refining technology: hydroprocessing
• Example: Arab Light 95 VI via hydroprocessing

9:50 Summary and conclusions

10:00 End of day one

07:00 Base Oil API Groups & Qualities

• The API base oil groups: I, II, III, IV and V
• Quality comparison of the different API Groups
• Discussion: are the API Groups still relevant today?

8:00 Base Oil Refining: Hybrid Processes

• Why API groups weren’t named by process type
• Hybrid solvent processing + hydroprocessing
• Hybrid fuels and base oil hydrocracking

8:45 Break

9:00 Base Oil Demand (Finished Lubricants 101)

• Correlating base oils to finished lubricants
• Transportation, industrial and process oil segments
• Base oil quality trends within each sector

9:50 Summary and conclusions

10:00 End of day two

07:00 Discussion: Global and Regional Manufacturing Routes

• Base oil manufacturing differences by region
• Reasons for regional differences in manufacturing & quality
• Going forward: what will shape global base oil profitability?

08:00 Lubricant additives

• Additive introduction
• Major additive functions; new additive technology trends
• Supply chain: finished lubricant blending and packaging

08:40 Base oils industry survey

08:50 Break

9:00 Future trends – Disruptive scenarios

• Gas-to-liquids (GTL) base oils
• Electric Vehicles – updated forecast impact on base oils

9:50 Summary and conclusions

10:00 End of course

Suggested Base Oil Technical Reference Books
Lubricant Base Oil and Wax Processing, Sequeira
Process Chemistry of Lubricant Basestocks, Lynch

Amy Claxton email aaclaxt@yahoo.com