Malaysia's Petronas successfully expanded its Group III base oil production capacity from 300,000mt/yr to 330,000mt/yr, but it would keep its supplies to China unchanged at 3,000-4,000/month, revealed a company source.
The oil giant had started trial run at the facility and began to produce 3cst (namely 70N) base oils since the beginning of the year, he introduced.
As the Chinese market could receive ample cargoes from South Korea, the oil major planned to mainly supply its resources to Europe and US, instead of beefing up supplies to China, he added.
Meanwhile, no extra resources were available for the Chinese market, because it planned to put the Group III base oil unit into monthlong routine maintenance in mid 2011, he furthered. It had started to ration base oil supplies at present, he added. Petronas previously had a base oil production capacity of 300,000mt/yr. It mainly produced Group III base oils, including 4cst, 6cst and 10cst grades. Its 2010 exports to China totaled 50,000mt.
