Chevron drives European truck lubricant revolution

Chevron Global Lubricants, a division of Chevron Limited, is introducing a new advanced high performance lubricant for European trucks that offers vehicle operator’s cost effective, non-conventional mineral oils based on Chevron’s global leadership in the supply of advanced Group II base oil technology.

Chevron’s Ursa Ultra lubricant is approved against the new ACEA E9 formulation for engine oil (announced in late December 2008) and is going on sale in two viscosity grades across Europe early in 2009. The company is confident that the new product will further enhance its standing in the competitive heavy duty lubricants arena.

The product is based on Chevron’s ISOSYN technology, which is a blend of highly refined hydroprocessed base oils with an advanced additive package that gives differentiated performance that rivals synthetic lubricants in critical performance tests at a highly competitive cost.

In recent years, global lubricant manufacturers have risen to the twin challenges of more compact, higher power, higher temperature engine environments and low emissions legislation requirements, with the further development of synthetic lubricants.

These have been successful but costly to produce. Moreover, conventional mineral base oils are also now no longer effective in these high specification low emissions engines.

This has led Chevron and its technologists to further build on its long-term technological expertise in Group II base oil development. With Ursa Ultra it is showing a serious commitment to delivering technological solutions across Europe, meeting in the process emerging technical challenges - including those involving high temperature and low emissions.

In late 2007, Chevron invested in infrastructure, including storage facilities in Antwerp, to make its Group II products more readily available. And to meet future European and global demands for these low emissions Group II oils a more significant investment would be required. This would mean the expansion of one of Chevron’s US refineries.
The solution is the proposed expansion of Pascagoula refinery in Mississippi in the U.S. Chevron Global Lubricants President Dale Walsh said that with the additional manufacturing capacity from Pascagoula the company would become the world’s largest producer of premium – Group II and III – base oils, with 61,000 b/d (US barrels per day) of capacity.

Chevron’s Richmond, California plant has 20,000 b/d of Group II capacity. GS Caltex, a 50-50 joint venture of Chevron and South Korean company GS Holdings, has 12,000 b/d of Group II and 4,000 b/d of Group III capacity in Yeosu, South Korea.
This means there will now be a sufficient supply of premium quality Group II base oils in Europe for the production of high performance, low emissions lubricants. In fact, currently 60 percent of the world’s premium base oils already benefit from Chevron processing technologies.

Chevron lubricants, formulated with ISOSYN technology, deliver a number of significant benefits. Firstly, there’s the cost. Chevron Group II base oils are less expensive to manufacture when compared to traditional synthetic oils.

While cost reduction is a highly significant benefit, ISOSYN technology lubricants go a lot further in optimising fleet efficiency and cost of operation.
Chevron premium quality ISOSYN technology oils form the basis for lubricants capable of delivering ultra high protection and performance to latest generation high output, low emissions truck and bus engines, working at high operating temperatures.

This means that not only will these advanced technology lubricants meet the ever-more stringent next generation emissions legislations, but they also deliver a whole range of other capabilities. These include low SAPs properties that result in a significant reduction in sulphated ash, phosphorus and the removal of sulphur.

It also means maximum wear and corrosion protection, with reduced oil consumption, and it means less thermal oxidation due to the pure state of Chevron Group II base oils.

ISOSYN technology also delivers high level protection to vulnerable exhaust after-treatment systems, optimising fleet uptime and competitive advantage.

The significant benefits of Chevron Group II base oils are already present in Europe, and will grow significantly when the proposed Pascagoula plant comes online, estimated to be 2011, delivering cost efficient low emissions engine protection to Europe’s environmentally conscious and highly competitive truck marketplace.