Polish lubes marketer Lotos Oil announced Monday that it had expanded its supply in Azerbaijan, its second Caucasus market after recently establishing a foothold in Georgia.
The company recently signed an agreement with its partners to supply motor oils to KIA Motors official dealers service stations in Azerbaijan. At the moment we supply about 1,000 tons of [finished] lubricants annually in Azerbaijan and account for around 10 percent of the market, the figures are growing every year, Cezary Kogucik, Lotos Oils commercial director, said at a press event last week in Krakow. Lotos Oil is part of the Polish oil major Lotos Group.
Our company sees good growth opportunities selling lubricants to the official service points of the major automobile companies. [In addition to] the already agreed sale of Lotos branded products to KIA Motors-Azerbaijan, we are conducting negotiations with the countrys Hyundai car dealership, Kogucik said.
Through its partners in the country, the company already sells lubricants to the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan and others such as Akkord, a developer and contractor, and Azenco, an energy construction company.
Lotos Oil began selling its products in September to KIA Motors’ service stations in Georgia as well, Zbignev Juchnevic, a spokesman for the companys eastern markets foreign trade office, told Lube Report.
Lotos Oil produces automobile, industrial and agricultural lubricants, as well as marine and railway oils, gas and other engine oils, greases and auto-cosmetics. It operates a 245,000 tons per year API Group I base oil plant in Gdansk. In Poland it also operates three lubricant production facilities located in Gdansk, Czechowice and Jaslo, according to the companys web-site.
In its recent study, Global Lubricants Industry: Market Analysis and Assessment, consultancy Kline and Co. estimated overall finished lubricant demand in Poland in 2011 at 225,000 metric tons. Consumer automotive and commercial automotive each accounted for 22 percent of total demand and industrial the remaining 56 percent.
According to Kline, Orlen led in overall lubricant supplier market share in Poland in 2011 with 29 percent, followed by Lotos at 28 percent, ExxonMobil at 10 percent, BP at 8 percent, Shell at 7 percent, Total at 3 percent, Fuchs at 2 percent and Petronas with 1 percent. All others accounted for 12 percent.
Synthetic penetration of passenger car motor oil is high in Poland at nearly 30 percent of total PCMO demand in 2011, Kline estimated, with semi-synthetic penetration at 45 percent, and the balance conventional.
Kline projects a compound annual growth rate of 0.5 to 1 percent from 2011 to 2016 for overall lubricants demand in Poland, and then at 2 to 2.5 percent from 2016 to 2021.