Japan’s JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp. will purchase 8 percent of state-owned petroleum company Vietnam National Petroleum Group, known as Petrolimex.
JX Nippon Oil & Energy, aiming to enhance the corporate value of Petrolimex, will explore various business opportunities in the petroleum products supply chain, from refining to marketing, using its long business experience in Japan, a recent JX press release announced.
Both oil companies run a wide range of petroleum products operations – from the exploration and refining of crude oil to the blending and marketing of finished lubricants. JX Nippon Oil also operates three base oil refineries in Japan.
Neither company provided further details regarding the extent of the partnership. Cooperation between Petrolimex and JX has only just begun, a Petrolimex spokesman told Lube Report Asia. The companies alliance dates back at least to December 2014, when they signed a Memorandum of Understanding agreement to pursue cooperation.
Petrolimex has two 25,000-metric tons per year lubricant blending plants, which supply 20 percent of Vietnams finished lubricants market, according to its website. Petrolimex products are also exported to Laos, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Philippines.
JX Nippon Oil is one of Japans largest lubricants suppliers of automotive and industrial lubricants, which it manufacturers and markets under its Eneos brand. In 2014 it began commercial operations at its lubricant blending plant in Haiphong, Vietnam.