Lukoil is developing a 270,000 tons per year blending plant at its Volgograd refinery, trying to firmly hold its grip on the domestic and international lubricants markets.
The Russian oil majors plant is larger than Shells 180,000 tons per year blending plant in Torzhok, which is scheduled to start streaming this summer and which the Dutch oil major boasted would be the biggest in its European network of lube plants.
The initial capacity of the new [Volgograd] packaging production and lubricants automatic filling line complex is 35,000 tons per year and is expected to start to operate in September,Alexey Filippov, LLK-Internationals chief operating officer, told Lube Report. LLK is Lukoils lubricants arm.
An expansion is planned at the blending plant, and is scheduled to reach its 270,000 t/y capacity by 2015. The plant will produce motor oils, as well as transmission, industrial, hydraulic, transformer and compressor lubes. The complex will produce around 150 different types of lubricants,Filippov said.
The new complex, which is expected to roll out its first finished products very soon, consists of three lines: 5,000 tons annually will be filled in one-liter canisters, 10,000 tons in four-liter canisters and 20,000 tons in five-liter canisters. Three machines are producing the plastic canisters and automatically filling the blended lubes,Filippov said.
The state-of-the-art equipment of the new [lubricants production] complex is made by Uniloy Milacron and other major European producers for packaging and filling lines, Lukoil said.
The Volgograd plant currently produces 30,000 t/y of API Group III base oils, but is set for expansion. By 2015, its volume will increase to 260,000 t/y, and it will double its Group II and Group III base oil capacity by 2020.
The refinery is a pioneer for production of high-quality lubes in Russia. In 1988, before the collapse of the Soviet Union, it started to stream low-cold, high-viscosity hydraulic and aviation oils, according to the Lukoil website.
The Volgograd refinery started commercially marketing its finished products in 2002-2003 when the blending plant was put into operation, together with a big finished products storage facility. Soon after that, in 2005, Lukoil completely separated its lubricants business through its LLK-International subsidiary.
Lukoil is Russias biggest lubricants producer and holds a30 percent share of the countrys automotive lubricants market. In 2011 the company produced 1.2 million tons of base oils and finished lubricants or 45 percent of the countrys total lubricants output. The production is coming from seven [base oil and lubricants blending plants] located in Russia and abroad,Filippov said.
The company markets its products inmore than 30countries around the globe.