US-based ExxonMobil Chemical broke ground Wednesday on a world-scale plant that will manufacture synthetic lubricant base stocks at the company's integrated refining and chemical complex in Baytown, Texas.
The new plant is expected to be completed in 2013 and have the capacity to produce 50,000 mt/year of metallocene polyalphaolefin synthetic lubricant base stocks, the company said.
"This new metallocene (high-viscosity) PAO manufacturing capacity demonstrates ExxonMobil's technology leadership and our commitment to provide our customers with reliable supply of synthetic base stocks that enable innovative synthetic lubricants," Habib Quazi, ExxonMobil's synthetics global vice president, said as part of the company's announcement Wednesday.
Additional details of the plant, including its cost, were unavailable by time of publication.
The Baytown complex is the largest integrated petroleum and petrochemical complex in the United States.
