Motiva Enterprises LLC announced last Thursday it has expanded its Motiva STAR base oils portfolio to include Group III premium base oils. Motiva’s Group III base oil products, STAR HVI 4 (4 cSt) and STAR HVI 6 (6 cSt), are manufactured and shipped from the Port Arthur Refinery – the largest base oil plant in the western hemisphere with a capacity of more than 40,000 barrels of base oils a day.

“Base oil customers are increasingly looking for a one-stop supplier for all their base oil requirements,” said Bryan Schorzman, general manager of base oils for Motiva. “Broadening our portfolio to include Group III product offerings has further strengthened our position as the base oil supplier of choice. Our customers, who count on our proven manufacturing reliability, world-class quality and unparalleled technical support, can now blend all their major products using only Motiva base oils.”

With the start-up of Group III commercial sales, Motiva becomes the largest domestic producer of Group III base oils in the United States, enabling customers to benefit from NAFTA tax advantages and substantially shorter supply cycle times. Motiva said it will post its Group III pricing beginning this month.

Schorzman did not disclose what Motiva's Group III base oil production capacity would be, but stated "it will transform Motiva into the leading domestic source of Group III stocks, and that Motiva will choose to optimize production to make what its customers require".

The other North American producers of Group III base oil are Petro-Canada's Mississauga, Ontario, Canada (now owned by HollyFrontier) plant with a capacity to produce 4,000 bpd Group III base oils, Avista's Peachtree City, Georgia plant with a capacity to produce 400 bpd Group III base oils and Calumet's Shreveport, Louisiana plant also with a capacity to produce 400 bpd Group III base oils.

Motiva'a Port Arthur is the world’s second-largest base oil refinery with a production capacity of 40,300 bpd, second only to S-Oil's plant in Ulsan, South Korea with a production capacity of 41,800 bpd of lube base oils.

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Motiva refines, distributes and markets petroleum products throughout the United States. Motiva owns and operates North America’s largest refinery in Port Arthur, Texas with a crude capacity of more than 600,000 barrels a day.

Motiva Enterprises previously was a 50–50 joint venture between Shell Oil Company and Saudi Refining Inc. (controlled by Saudi Aramco). As of May 2017, Motiva became a fully owned affiliate of Saudi Refining Inc. In March 2017, Royal Dutch Shell signed definitive agreements with Saudi Refining Inc. that gave full ownership of refining and marketing joint venture Motiva Enterprises, LLC to Saudi Refining. The partners agreed that Aramco would take over the Port Arthur, Texas, refinery and retain 26 distribution terminals as well as the Motiva name. Shell became sole owner of the Louisiana refineries in Convent and Norco, where it also operates a chemicals plant, as well as Shell-branded gasoline stations in Florida, Louisiana and the Northeastern region.