US re-refiner, Safety-Kleen, is on the way to bringing all of its blending operations in-house.
The North American producer, which currently supplies as much as six percent of the region's lubricants market, has begun work on a $15m blending plant at its refinery in East Chicago, Indiana. Once complete, the re-refinery will have a capacity of more than 20m gallons of finished lubes annually.
The re-refinery is currently capable of producing some 4,200b/d of API Group II base oil as well as 800b/d of increasingly scarce Group I product. Until the new plant is completed at the East Chicago site, Safety-Kleen will continue to outsource its blending operations. However once in operation, the plant will allow the company to bring all of its blending in-house.
As well as it's existing re-refinery in Canada, Safety-Kleen is also apparently eyeing potential sites in the South East and Gulf Coast regions of the US.