OREANDA-NEWS. Repsol and the Korean company SK have started production at their new base oil plant in Cartagena and preparations are already underway to load the first oil cargo which will depart in the next few days to Rotterdam.

The new plant, located next to the Repsol refinery in Cartagena, will operate under the name of ILBOC, is the largest facility of its kind in Europe. It has a production capacity of 630,000 tons of Group II and III base lubricants. These high quality base lubricants are the raw material for next generation lubricating oils.

During the building of this facility, which began in 2012 and involved an investment of 250 million euros, more than 1,600 people from more than 100 companies have participated and accumulated an excess of 2.5 million working hours.

The ILBOC, joint venture between Repsol and the Korean SK Lubricants, will be a point of reference in Europe, the world's largest high quality lubricant base oil market. ILBOC obtained the quality certification ISO 9001, which demonstrates the company's commitment with customers and quality.

In the European market the demand for high quality base oils is increasing, in parallel with synthetic lubricants, suitable for new engines such as the Euro VI, compulsory in Europe since 2014. These new generation lubricants contribute to improve fuel economy and reduce greenhouse gases.

ILBOC, reference bases lubricant company

This project was originally called SKSOL, a joint venture between Repsol and SK, which today has been changed to ILBOC (acronym for Iberian Lube Base Oils Company), a company of reference in the next generation base oil markets.