Saudi base oils producer Luberef has signed up to secure VGO feedstock for its Yanbu plant from the nearby Samref refinery. In a 25 January submission to the Tadawul exchange, Lubref said that it expects the Heavy Vacuum Gas Oil (HVGO) supplies to boost production at the Yanbu facility by around 96,000 t/y of higher-value Group II base oils.
Luberef is 70% owned by Saudi Aramco, with the remaining 30% trading on the Tadawul after local private equity firm Jadwa Investment (30%) opted in 2022 to sell its stake in an IPO (MEES, 16 December 2022). It has capacity to produce 1.3mn t/y of Group I and Group II base oils through two plants on the Red Sea; a 1mn t/y facility at Yanbu and a smaller 275,000 t/y plant at Jeddah. (CONTINUED - 491 WORDS)
