Bahrain-headquartered announced the opening of its $9 million high-tech refinery plant, first of its kind plant in the Kingdom of Bahrain commission for refining the used lubricant oil in Bahrain.
The opening ceremony takes place on Tuesday under the patronage of Shaikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, head of the Public Commission for the Protection of Marine Resources and Wildlife, the Commission.
The state-of-the-art refinery is one of the largest, and most environmentally-friendly used lube oil recycling facilities in the GCC, it has been approved by the Public Commission and other relevant regulatory bodies for adhering to the highest environmental conduct standards.
Agas Lubes with the capacity to re-refine and process 36,000 MT of oil annually has integrated facilities for used lube oil collection, transportation, storage, quality checks, processing and export of base oils and other by-products worldwide.
The new refinery is equipped to recycle used lubricants with near zero waste with its use of sophisticated green technology capabilities, including ‘Wiped Thin Film Evaporator’ also known as ‘Short Path or Molecular Distillation’ under high vacuum. This advanced technology enables the recycling of used lube oil into high-value products, such as various grades of reclaimed base oils, fuel oil, and bituminous oil, without compromising high-quality, and with minimal environmental impact.
“Agas Group dedicates this new state-of-the art lube base oil recycling refinery to the environmentally-friendly citizens of Bahrain,” said Eric D’souza, Director, Agas Lubes.
“We also take this opportunity to extend our sincere thanks and appreciation to our kind patron Shaikh Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa, to the Government of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Ministry of Environment, the National Oil and Gas Authority, the Ministry of Works, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Ministry of Interior, Municipalities of Sitra, Middle Area, Ports Authority, Civil Defense and all the other government authorities and well-wishers who have been instrumental in their support of our operations,” D’souza added.
“Agas Group’s commitment to the Kingdom of Bahrain’s environment has really been the inspiration and driving force behind actualizing this refinery plant, and to identifying a sustainable solution to the used lubricant disposal problem in Bahrain.”
“Used lubricating oils are insoluble, slow to degrade, persistent, and can contain toxic chemicals and heavy metals, making them the single largest source of water pollution worldwide. The amount of oil in one oil change can ruin an entire day’s water supply in a small city, and if used oil is not properly managed, it can pollute our land, our water resources, and pose severe hazards to our health and to our environment. Moreover—and of particular salience to the MENA region, used lube oil is mostly adulterated with low cost fuels for export as fuel oils, and burning used lube oil is highly toxic, releasing a number of carcinogens,” K.A. Padmanabhan, Vice President Technical, said.
“Such re-cycling not only prevents contamination of the environment and conserves a valuable resource, but also provides cost efficiency by reducing waste disposal costs, and ensures the sustainability of high-performance by reducing long-term liability for disposed products,” D’souza added.
The Group has diversified interests in evacuation of petroleum residues and treatment, fuel oil production, marine oil terminal operations, metal cutting gas production and marketing, lube base oil re-refining, oil trading, environmental services in treatment of soil contaminated with hydrocarbons, Conversion of waste plastics / tires, petroleum residues and sludge’s to valuable fuels, information technology, and infrastructure development in oil and gas sector.