In an effort to fulfill the company’s goal to be the “world’s largest producer of premium oil base,” Chevron Corp. (IW 500/3) announced last week that its subsidiary Chevron U.S.A. Inc. has begun commercial production of premium base oils from a newly constructed manufacturing facility at the company’s Pascagoula, Miss. refinery.
“Lubricants are a high growth business supporting economic development worldwide,” said Mike Wirth, executive vice president, Chevron Downstream & Chemicals.
Base oils produced at Pascagoula will add to capacity from the company’s refinery in Richmond, Calif. and a joint venture facility in Yeosu, Korea, approximately doubling Chevron’s production capacity and positioning it to be the world’s largest producer of premium base oil.
Base oils from the new facility will supply customers in the U.S. East, Europe and Latin America, with Richmond continuing to supply the U.S. West, and both Richmond and Yeosu supplying Asia.
The facility is designed to manufacture 25,000 barrels per day of premium base oil, helping countries around the world meet increasingly strict regulatory requirements and higher performance standards for lubricants. Premium base oil is the main ingredient in the production of top-tier motor oils that help improve fuel economy, lower tail-pipe emissions and extend the time between oil changes. Base oils are used to make lubricants and greases for machinery and equipment in the commercial and industrial sectors.
The base oil facility uses Chevron’s proprietary ISODEWAXING technology invented in 1993.. Over half of the world’s premium base oil is manufactured with this technology through licensing agreements with Chevron.
