Stockholm, 28 February (Argus) — Finland's Neste Oil and Abu Dhabi state-owned oil company Adnoc have entered into a partnership to build a 600,000 t/yr very high viscosity index (VHVI) sulphur-free base oils plant in Abu Dhabi by the end of 2013.
The plant will be run and maintained by Adnoc's refining subsidiary Takreer, which will also provide the feedstock for the facility, while Neste Oil will be responsible for sales and marketing and will not make any financial investments in the project.
The plant, to be set up at Abu Dhabi's Ruwais industrial complex, will have capacity to produce 500,000 t/yr of Group III base oil to be used in blending top-tier lubricants, and 100,000 t/yr of Group II base oil.
Neste Oil said today that the output of the plant will be flexible and will include base oils with viscosity grades from 2cst up to 6cst, demand for which is increasing because of more stringent global environmental standards.
Takreer awarded the initial engineering contract for the project to South Korea's Hyundai Engineering in May last year. The base oil plant will be based on ExxonMobil hydroisomerisation technology and Neste-Jacobs' distillation technology.
The project calls for a revamp of Takreer's existing hydrocracker unit at Ruwais, new storage tanks and the integration of the new base oils plant with Takreer's existing refinery units and utilities. The project will increase Neste Oil's total base oil capacity to 1.3mn t/yr.
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