Italy’s base oil stocks fell in February to their lowest in almost three years as consumption outpaced production for a fourth straight month.The country’s base oil inventories fell to 66,380t in February, government data showed. The volume was down from more than 69,000t in January and from more than 100,000 t/month in the four months to December..Base oil stocks have slumped in response to an unexpectedly steep and prolonged fall in the country’s output of the lubricant feedstock. Production fell because of plant maintenance work that had initially been scheduled to end in December. But the plant is still offline after the shutdown began in November.Italy’s base oils consumption has also fallen amid slowing lubricant demand, especially of industrial oils.But the fall in consumption has been insufficient to compensate for the drop in base oils output. Consumption fell faster than the drop in production in February for the first time in four months. But it remained higher than production levels.Base oil stocks have fallen ahead of a seasonal pick-up in demand in the region. Demand has got a further boost as buyers have sought alternative supplies in place of shipments of Russian origin.
