Turkish refiner Tupras has completed a turnaround at its Izmir base oil refinery and will restart sales at the plant where it suspended production in mid-January for maintenance.
The 400,000 t/yr Group I facility restarted production this week, according to market sources. The company will offer spindle oil, light neutral, heavy neutral, and bright stock Group I products and the lower-quality extract products from 9 March, according to documents seen by Argus. The spindle, light, and heavy products are about the equivalent of SN 80, SN 150, and SN 500 Group I base oils respectively, with the extract products being similar but having looser specification guarantees.
Tupras said it would start offering heavy oil on 9-10 March, spindle oil on 10-11 March, and bright stock oil on 16-17 March. It said supply of spindle oil could be limited, and that sales of light oil could resume on 11 March provided nothing hinders output.
The Izmir plant has had regularly maintenance turnarounds in the past few years, including a month-long programme that started in mid-August 2022, and a seven-month closure from August 2021.
A widening spread (see chart) between Argus-assessed Group I SN 150 fob Black Sea prices and Group 1 SN 150 Turkey domestic ex-tank prices has meant Turkish blenders increasingly turning to Russian products. Imports from Russia more than doubled year on year to 120,000t in 2022.
But with heavily discounted Russian crude gaining popularity in Turkey, especially at Azeri state-owned Socar's 200,000 b/d Aliaga refinery, the competitiveness of Turkish-origin base oils could improve.
