Russian oil major Gazprom Neft said Monday it will set up new lubricants production in Western or Central Europe to reduce the growing volumes being shipped from Russia.
In my opinion, we really need additional lubricant blending capacity in Europe as we expand overseas rapidly, said Alexandr Trukhan, head of Gazpromneft-Lubricants. The company is now working on the preliminary plans of the project, and the final decision on the plants location and capacity will be ready by mid-2017.
The company operates two blending plants in Europe, one in Bari, Italy, and another in Novi Sad, Serbia.
Gazpromneft-Lubricants expanding presence in overseas markets raised export volumes of premium products to 68,000 tons for the first nine months of 2016, 21 percent more than the same time in 2015. Last year the company started to market its products in Vietnam, South Korea, Poland and South Africa. In 2016 we succeeded in expanding our product portfolio with more complex lubricating materials to continue the strategy of technological development and international expansion of our company, Trukhan said.
From January to September Gazpromneft-Lubricants sold 124,000 metric tons of high quality finished lubricants, or 5 percent more compared to the same period last year, the company said. Sales of the companys flagship G-Energy-branded oils rose by the same percentage to 30,000 tons.
After Lukoil and Rosneft, Gazprom Neft is the third-largest lube marketer in Russia and held 15 percent of the countrys lube market in 2015. In Russia it operates three blending plants located in Omsk and Moscow. The Omsk lubricants production and filling complex is one of the largest blending sites in Russia, capable of producing up to 110,000 tons of finished lubricants annually.