PROCESS TO PREPARE FISCHER-TROPSCH DERIVED MIDDLE DISTILLATES AND BASE OILS

The present invention provides a process to prepare middle distillates and base oils from a Fischer-Tropsch product, by (a) subjecting the Fischer-Tropsch product to a hydroprocessing step in the presence of a catalyst comprising a molecular sieve with a pore size between 5 and 7 angstrom and a SiO2/AlO3 ratio of at least 25, preferably from 50 to 180 and a group VIII metal to obtain a mixture comprising one or more middle distillate fractions and a first residual fraction and a naphtha fraction; (b) separating the mixture as obtained in step (a) by means of atmospheric distillation into one or more middle distillate fractions, a first residual fraction and a naphtha fraction;(c) separating the first residual fraction by means of vacuum distillation into at least a distillate base oil fraction and a second residual fraction.