Russias Gazprom Neft Lubricants is developing an international network of service stations for maintenance and regular oil changes.
Titled as G-Energy Service, the project aims to open 15 such stations by the end of the year. The service points will offer post-warranty car maintenance that includes motor and transmission oil changes, as well as change of technical fluids. The project already started in three service stations – two in Italy and one in Georgia, Gazprom Neft Lubricants said in a July 1 press release. We plan to expand such services in Russia and other ex-Soviet states, Western Europe, in some countries in the Middle East and other markets where we sell our production.
The service stations will offer only Gazprom Neft Lubricants products. The company will help its partners with technical support for equipment purchase, personnel training, marketing and external design of the stations. The company can also provide loans to its partners for business development. In 2015 Gazprom Neft Lubricants plans to expand the network and integrate its standards of quality.
Conquest of prospective market niches is very important for reaching the lubricant sale level specified in the companys long-term strategy. Our aim is to develop an international network of independent maintenance service stations that will offer G-Energy branded lubes with modern standards of quality on par with our competitors, said Alexandr Trukhan, general director of Gazprom Neft Lubricants.
The company is Russian oil major Gazprom Nefts lube arm. It is one of the biggest Russian lubricant marketers. In 2013 it produced 492,000 tons of base oils and lubricants and held 14 percent of the countrys market. The oil major operates two API Group I base oil plants at its refineries in Omsk and Yaroslavl.
Additionally, Gazprom Neft Lubricants operates five blending facilities – three in Russia, one in Italy and one in Serbia. It sells finished lubricants in 42 countries, with distribution channels in some European Union markets, as well as in Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Last year it started sales in Hungary, Lebanon, Nigeria, Afghanistan and the Dominican Republic.