Samer Al Hokail, CEO of Saudi Aramco Base Oil Co. (Luberef), said base oil crack margins reached about SAR 1,884 per metric ton in Q3 2025, up 9% year-on-year (YoY) and 5% above the 10-year average.
In an interview with CNBC Arabia, Al Hokail pointed out the increase in base oil crack margins was the main driver behind the company’s strong financial performance in Q3 2025.
Although lower crack margins for byproducts had a major impact on profit for the first nine months of the year, an improvement in base oil margins helped limit the overall decline to nearly 2% YoY by the end of Q3.
Luberef CEO emphasized that the company continues to focus on enhancing base oil crack margins as the key driver of operational performance, as higher margins improve product and equipment utilization.
Luberef is constantly exploring new opportunities to strengthen byproduct crack margins, the CEO added.
He also said Luberef is implementing a sustainable expansion plan supported by growing global demand for Group II and Group III base oils. The first expansion project, completed in 2017, enabled the company to produce around 900,000 metric tons of base oils.
The ongoing Yanbu expansion will allow Luberef to produce base oils across all three groups by 2026, making it the first company in the region to do so.
According to Argaam data, Luberef’s net profit fell to SAR 745.5 million for the first nine months of 2025, from SAR 763.8 million in the same period last year, while Q3 profit increased more than 23% to nearly SAR 279 million.
Samer Al Hokail, CEO of Saudi Aramco Base Oil Co. (Luberef), said base oil crack margins reached about SAR 1,884 per metric ton in Q3 2025, up 9% year-on-year (YoY) and 5% above the 10-year average.
In an interview with CNBC Arabia, Al Hokail pointed out the increase in base oil crack margins was the main driver behind the company’s strong financial performance in Q3 2025.
Although lower crack margins for byproducts had a major impact on profit for the first nine months of the year, an improvement in base oil margins helped limit the overall decline to nearly 2% YoY by the end of Q3.
Luberef CEO emphasized that the company continues to focus on enhancing base oil crack margins as the key driver of operational performance, as higher margins improve product and equipment utilization.
Luberef is constantly exploring new opportunities to strengthen byproduct crack margins, the CEO added.
He also said Luberef is implementing a sustainable expansion plan supported by growing global demand for Group II and Group III base oils. The first expansion project, completed in 2017, enabled the company to produce around 900,000 metric tons of base oils.
The ongoing Yanbu expansion will allow Luberef to produce base oils across all three groups by 2026, making it the first company in the region to do so.
According to Argaam data, Luberef’s net profit fell to SAR 745.5 million for the first nine months of 2025, from SAR 763.8 million in the same period last year, while Q3 profit increased more than 23% to nearly SAR 279 million.
