Chevron Oronite said Thursday that it has completed an expansion of its lubricant additive manufacturing plant in Singapore – increasing the number of chemical components it produces to reduce reliance on outside suppliers.
The company – part of oil major Chevron, which is headquartered in San Ramon, California, United States – said there were two phases to the project. The first, which began in February 2020, installed facilities to make two chemicals that are used as detergents, though the company did not specify what they are.
The second phase, which was completed in July of this year, upgraded and expanded the plant’s blending facility, allowing it to make more complex additive packages. The news release implied that Oronite supplied those packages in the past but had not been able to produce them in Singapore.
“This project has expanded the core component capabilities of the Singapore Manufacturing Plant, enabling us to produce the majority of components that go into our additive packages,” Oronite General Manager of Manufacturing and Supply for Asia-Pacific Lim Keng Yang said in the news release. “This allows us to further integrate our manufacturing processes and control the variables to improve both quality and lead times.”
Officials said self-sufficiency is an advantage during periods of supply disruptions like those that have struck the lubricants industry and others during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“With this new investment and our network of manufacturing plants in Asia, we are delivering more products directly to our customers in the region,” General Manager of Sales and Marketing for Asia-Pacific Eugene Ng said. Oronite is one of the world’s four main suppliers of lubricant additive packages with wholly owned factories in Singapore, China, France, the United States and Brazil, plus an affiliated additive blending plant in Japan. Like other suppliers, Oronite manufactures some of the chemical components used in its packages and purchases other from outside companies.