Where do the base oils, etc come from

[53' Stude]

Good Sunday morning folks. Where do companies like Exxon Mobil and SOPUS, Valvoline and others get their base stock or crude? U.S.A. Or? I always wondered this myself. Thanks for any info

 

[Nitro234]

I think the SOPUS GTL comes from Qatar, would be interesting to know the rest

 

[ThankYouma]

Good morning, everyone. It appears the ExxonMobil crude comes in part from Texas and Louisiana. https://fuelsandlubes.com/exxonmobil-to-shut-down-base-oil-production-at-beaumont-refinery/

Quote:

ExxonMobil Corp., which recently announced that it is boosting its Beaumont, Texas crude oil processing capacity by 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) is closing down its base oil production unit at the refinery by the second quarter of 2016. ExxonMobil has three lubricating base oil plants in the United States, including Baton Rouge, La., Baytown, Texas, and Beaumont, Texas. The Beaumont refinery is the smallest of these three, producing 10,000 bpd of Group I base oil, according to the latest report from the American Fuels & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) on Lubricating Oil and Wax Capacities of Refiners and Re-Refiners in the Western Hemisphere. The Baton Rouge refinery is ExxonMobil’s largest Group I base oil plant, producing 16,000 bpd.

Their base stock lists the Americas, as well as Asia Pacific locations. https://www.exxonmobil.com/en/basestocks/products/group-ii-base-stocks

 

[tig1]

XM is a producer of synthetic base stocks that are sold to oil formulators. Base stocks like PAO, AN, and esters. https://www.exxonmobil.com/en/basestocks/products/synthetic-base-stocks

 

[SonofJoe]

Regarding crude sourcing, when I used to refine the stuff for Esso (Exxon) in the UK, we used to get it from all over but mainly from the North Sea & Middle East. There's a lot of very complex science that governs what crudes you buy & from where (linear programming driven process economics modelling). However, the golden rule is if you can buy the right crudes (in terms of density & sulphur) locally at the right price, then you buy local. Lube base oils tend to differ from crude oils. You tend not to buy run-of-the-mill base oils in, for example, Saudi to use in the US because the transport costs become very significant. As a rule, local base oil production tends to feed local supply. Shell produce Motiva stocks in the US (at Port Arthur as I recall). However, because the US is so vast, it doesn't necessarily make sense to ship the stuff all over the country, so a bulk Shell fully formulated oil grade might be made from one of several base oil that are available locally. A Shell oil in California might easily be made with base oil made at Chevron's Richmond plant, just because its cheaper & more efficient to do it that way. However there are exceptions. Shell GTL base oil ALL comes from Qatar and is made exclusively from Qatari natural gas. Likewise a huge amount of Group III traditionally comes out places like South Korea.

 

[PeterPolyol]

Originally Posted By: ThankYouma

Good morning, everyone. It appears the ExxonMobil crude comes in part from Texas and Louisiana. https://fuelsandlubes.com/exxonmobil-to-shut-down-base-oil-production-at-beaumont-refinery/

Quote:

ExxonMobil Corp., which recently announced that it is boosting its Beaumont, Texas crude oil processing capacity by 20,000 barrels per day (bpd) is closing down its base oil production unit at the refinery by the second quarter of 2016. ExxonMobil has three lubricating base oil plants in the United States, including Baton Rouge, La., Baytown, Texas, and Beaumont, Texas. The Beaumont refinery is the smallest of these three, producing 10,000 bpd of Group I base oil, according to the latest report from the American Fuels & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) on Lubricating Oil and Wax Capacities of Refiners and Re-Refiners in the Western Hemisphere. The Baton Rouge refinery is ExxonMobil’s largest Group I base oil plant, producing 16,000 bpd.

Their base stock lists the Americas, as well as Asia Pacific locations. https://www.exxonmobil.com/en/basestocks/products/group-ii-base-stocks

Originally Posted By: tig1

XM is a producer of synthetic base stocks that are sold to oil formulators. Base stocks like PAO, AN, and esters. https://www.exxonmobil.com/en/basestocks/products/synthetic-base-stocks

What's that link again??