ExxonMobil to expand Louisiana lubricants plants, close New Jersey facility
ExxonMobil will spend more than $200 million to expand its Baton Rouge chemical and lubricants plants in Louisiana to raise capacity for synthetic lubricant base stocks manufacturing and lubricants blending, packaging and storage, the company said on Thursday.
The expansion will increase ExxonMobil’s global capacity of synthetic esters and alkylated naphthalene by more than 25% to meet demand for high-performance lubricants made with these advanced products, according to Exxon officials.
The project will include construction of a blending center for synthetic aviation oil at the company’s lubricant blending plant in Port Allen, La.
“ExxonMobil continues to invest in its operations in Louisiana,” said Paul Stratford, manager of the Baton Rouge chemical plant. “Over the past three years, the corporation’s capital expenditures in the state exceeded $930 million.”
Construction is expected to begin in late 2012. The project will create more than 400 direct construction jobs. The facilities are expected to provide 45 new full-time local jobs when production begins in 2014.
The new facilities in Baton Rouge will replace ExxonMobil’s existing base stock manufacturing and aviation lubricants blending, packaging and storage operations in Edison, New Jersey, which will cease production when the new facilities in Louisiana begin operation.
The project will make ExxonMobil’s Baton Rouge complex the world’s largest producer of synthetic esters and alkylated naphthalene, the company says, products which are used by producers and marketers of a wide variety of finished lubricants that include vehicle motor oils, gear oils and greases, as well as specialized lubricants for aviation, marine and industrial applications.
“The new aviation lubricants blending center reflects our continuing commitment to safe and reliable supply of aviation and other lubricant products,” said Julius Bedford, manager of ExxonMobil’s lubricant blending plant in Port Allen, La.
The 8.3-acre facility will manufacture more than 145 lubricant products and have an annual throughput of more than 90 million gallons, according to the company.
ExxonMobil says the expansion, coupled with a new metallocene polyalpholefins plant under construction at its complex in Baytown, Texas, positions it to meet long-term demand growth for lubricants with greater energy efficiency, improved durability and extended drain intervals.
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