Saudi Arabia’s Luberef has started Group II base oils sales – sources

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Saudi Aramco Base Oil Company (Luberef) has started selling its Group II base oils to customers in India and possibly in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) too, keeping with the timeline it had initially announced, according to market sources.

Luberef sold 70N Group II base oils to buyers in India in January and the shipments were heard to be arriving in February, the sources said.

Other grades being offered included 110N and 230N.

It was unclear, however, whether similar grades were being offered to buyers in the UAE. The company could not be reached for comment.

Luberef said in October last year it planned to have commercially available volumes of Group II base oils by January 2018.

In the Group I sector, Luberef was able to produce a combined 550,000 tonnes/year of Group I base oils and brightstock from its plants in Jeddah and Yanbu.

It hopes to expand that with another 550,000 tonnes/year of Group II base oils.

In the Middle East, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (Adnoc) also produces Group II base oils but Asian refiners have typically been the main suppliers of Group II base oils.