Swedish speciality producer Nynas will shut the naphthenic base oil unit at its 50,000 b/d Harburg refinery in Germany for a four-week maintenance from mid-April.
Customer demand will be covered from inventory that has been built ahead of the scheduled shutdown. "There will not be any impact on the supply of products to customers. The base oil plant at Nynashamn will continue to operate normally and will not be affected", the firm said.
This maintenance will overlap with a raft of shutdowns at paraffinic Group I base oil plants in eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.
Stockpiling ahead of this maintenance has cut base oil supply to the European domestic and export spot markets. Base oil production had already been at lower levels from the second quarter of last year onwards when reduced refinery utilisation rates cut availability of vacuum gasoil (VGO) feedstocks for base oil production.
European prices have trended upwards since mid-2020, with tightness prompting Group I export prices to achieve a premium to domestic levels for eight weeks from late December.
Availability of heavy viscosity grades, SN 500 and bright stock has been particularly tight. Reduced availability of heavy naphthenic grades would exacerbate tightness. Indian buyers have been purchasing heavy naphthenic base oils as an alternative to paraffinic bright stock.
Nynas has a total naphthenic base oil nameplate capacity of around 730,000 t/yr at its Harburg and Nynashamn refineries. The firm operates four refineries in Europe — Nynashamn and Gothenburg in Sweden, Harburg, and the Eastham refinery in the UK, which is a joint venture with Shell.
It produces naphthenic base oils, bitumen, process oils, transformer oils and tyre and rubber oils. The refinery's bitumen production is likely to be unaffected by the turnaround, although that has yet to be confirmed by Nynas.
Nynas' completed a reorganisation at the end of last year with trading firm Bitumina Industries now the largest shareholder with a 49.9pc stake. Venezuelan state-owned PdV owns 15pc and independent foundation Nynasstiftelsen owns the remainder.
