Sinopec Becomes World's Largest Naphthene Base Lubricating Oil Producer

A high pressure hydrogenated facility, part of Sinopec Karamay Company's transformer oil quality upgrading and lubricating oil structure adjustment project, passed trial operation on Nov 18.

The plant can produce 40 tons of lubricating oil per year. The annual production capacity of the project has already reached one million tons, making the company the high-end naphthenic base lubricating oil producer with the largest individual output capacity in the world. 

With a total investment of more than 700 million yuan ($99.45 million), construction of the project started on April 13, 2018 and the completed facility was delivered to its buyer on Sept 25 this year. The first main targeted product passed inspection and was packed on Nov 5, 2019. On Nov 11, the analysis of the product produced with the facility's last raw material processing method was qualified, marking the success of the trial production. 

Naphthene base heavy oil is a main production of the Karamay Oil field.

There was no traditional technology to refine such thick oil with high calcium and acid. The company has been researching processing of the heavy oil since the 1980s.

For the past 30 years, researchers overcame the high corrosion of naphtha oil and developed a whole set of deep processing technologies, the first in China and among the best globally. They have also shortened the maintenance period of production devices.

More than 50 of the special products including high-quality transformer oil, rubber oil and BS bright stock produced by the company have reached leading levels in the world and over 70 products are firsts in China. 

Its high voltage direct current (DC) transformer oil has been used in the Changji-Guquan ±1,100 kV ultra-high DC transmission project which has the highest voltage level in the world.

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)