The Dongfeng Castrol Oil Products Co. Ltd. joint venture announced early last month the first batch trial lubricants production at its 170,000 metric tons per year blending plant in Wuhan, China, as the last step before formal production at the site.
The joint venture said in a press release that the lubricant blending plant’s fully automatic stirring tank equipment was put into action on Jan. 5 on the first raw material from the base oil storage tank at the site, indicating the factory had entered the stage of batch trial lubricants production. That evening, the first batch of lubricants that passed the quality inspection were successfully produced, the joint venture said, marking the transition of the blending plant from trial production to the formal production stage.
According to the press release, the first batch of blended products in trial production was a 10W-40 gasoline engine oil. Joint venture company officials visited the plant site to inspect and guide the work, the announcement said, and shareholder BP sent a team of professional technical experts to participate in guidance at the plant.
According to a timeline in the press release, the Dongfeng Castrol Oil Products Co. Ltd. joint venture was jointly established in February 2005 by Dongfeng Motor Corp., Dongfeng Motor Co. Ltd., and United Kingdom-based BP Global Investment Co. Ltd. In October 2017, the three shareholders signed a strategic cooperation agreement to start construction of a lubricant blending plant, and research and development center in Wuhan.
In November 2020, the release indicated, construction started on the plant, including additive storage tanks, packaging materials and product warehouses, in the Wuhan Chemical Industry Zone in the Qingshang District.
The joint venture said that since the commissioning and test run of the Wuhan lubricants blending plant, all employees of the construction project team, blending workshop and equipment maintenance team worked to check and confirm the production workshop, public engineering systems and operating equipment, pipeline valves and electronic instruments were working properly.