Hydrodec signs lease for UK’s first lube oil re-refinery project

Hydrodec Group has entered into a long-term lease agreement with a member of the Peel Ports Group, the Manchester Ship Canal Company, on a nine-acre site in Merseyside. Financial details of the lease on the site near Eastham Locks in Port Wirral were not released.

Hydrodec plans to build a lube oil re-refinery, the first of its kind in the United Kingdom (UK), with a capacity to produce 75 million litres per annum of Group II quality base oil. The lube oil re-refinery will process used oil collected by its subsidiary OSS Group, which it acquired in 2013.

Completion of the lease agreement is dependent upon certain conditions, including obtaining a satisfactory development consent order under the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects planning regime, regulatory consents, licences and permits for the building and operation of the lube oil re-refinery, together with obtaining funding for the lube oil re-refinery.

Subject to practical completion of the first phase development within three years of the start of the lease, Hydrodec has the option to enter into a further long-term lease for an adjacent seven-acre site on the same terms.

“We considered various potential sites in the UK for the new re-refinery and selected the Eastham site for a number of reasons. In particular, the site is located in an established petrochemicals region and is zoned for employment use, provides good transport links by river and by road, whilst the availability of adjacent storage facilities means that the size of the new plant can be kept to a minimum,” said Hydrodec CEO Ian Smale.

He added, “We remain focused on developing the UK’s first purpose-built used lubricant oil re-refinery producing the highest quality Group II/II+ base oils and are currently fully engaged in the planning, permitting and financing process for the project.”