Rosnefts sales of what it calls premium lubricants rose by 17 percent to 70,000 metric tons in 2017 thanks to stepped-up marketing in the corporate and retail segments, the company said in its latest annual report. Sixty-three percent of Rosnefts combined base oil and finished lubricant sales were within Russia.

The companys combined sales of base oils and lubricants jumped 36 percent to approximately 1 million t/y. The increase was primarily due to the acquisition of fellow oil major Bashneft, in which Rosneft acquired a 57 percent stake in October 2016. Bashneft continues to operate as a separate company and has a base oil plant in Novo-Ufa.

At the Plant

Specialty chemicals company Lanxess has commissioned a new dimercaptothiadiazole derivatives production line at its Mannheim site in Germany. These chemicals are added to lubricants as multifunctional additives. The production line, which started in May 2018, doubles the annual production capacity of these specialty additives.

Russian New Car Exports Grew in 2017

Russia exported almost 39,000 new passenger cars in 2017, up 23 percent from the year before, but accounting for just 2.8 percent of the 1.4 million cars produced in the country in the same year, according to Autostat, a consultancy that specializes in the Russian automotive industry.

The main export destinations are the European Union, Central Asia, the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Middle East.

In Russia, new passenger car and light commercial vehicle sales grew by 17 percent in the January-July period of this year, compared to the same period in 2017. The trend is expected to remain throughout 2018, but it will have an almost non-existent effect on passenger car lubricant demand in the country, said Artem Mazaev, an independent consultant in the Russian lubricants industry.

He added that new cars consume a lower volumes of lubricants thanks to longer drain intervals. The new cars have drain intervals of 15,000 kilometers, almost double that of cars older than ten years that usually have 8,000 km drain intervals.

In 2017, two models, the Czech Skoda and the Russian Lada, accounted for the largest share of Russian car exports.

Doing Deals

U.S. testing, instrumentation and technical support provider Koehler Instrument Co. signed an exclusive distribution and service agreement with German tribological modeling, simulation and analysis company
Optimol Instruments Pr ftechnik GmbH for its existing SRVgrease test system users in North and Central America, as well as some Middle East and South East Asia markets.

Burckhardt Compression and ExxonMobil signed a global lubricants collaboration agreement for cylinder lubrication oil and related services for operators of reciprocating compressors. The companies will provide equipment and technical lubrication services, including training in products and lubrication best practices, lubricant analysis, equipment troubleshooting and maintenance support.

Fuchs Group sold its U.S. $17.1 million share in Swiss lubricants company Motorex AG Langenthal to Motorex-Bucher Group AG, the company announced in mid August. The independent German lubricants manufacturer said it still wants to compete in the Swiss lubricants market using its own brand.

Finland-based Telko Ltd. acquired Danish lubricants distributor Square Oil A/S for an undisclosed amount. Square Oil operates in the Norwegian and Danish markets and has net sales of $3.4 million.

Russian lubricant company Lukoil will distribute more than 20,000 metric tons of engine, transmission, gear, hydraulic and circulating oil for the Federal Grid Co. of Unified Energy System, Russias largest electricity distribution company.

German chemicals distributor Brenntag completed its acquisition of the Belgium-based specialty chemicals distributor Alphamin S.A., which supplies specialty polymers and waxes.

Indian lubricants marketer GP Petroleums Ltd. inked a deal with Dubai-based lubricants company MAG Lube LLC to manufacture and market GP Petroleums Ipol lubricant brand globally.

Private equity firm Junction Energy Capital and asset management company Ara Partners Group acquired a significant stake in German rerefiner Puraglobe. Neither company disclosed how Puraglobe would use the funds that the deal had generated.

Spanish energy company Repsols lubricants unit will acquire a 40 percent share of Mexican automotive fluids and lubricants company Bardahl, with an eye to increasing the Spanish companys Latin America footprint and giving it another outlet for API Group II output from its Cartagena refinery in Spain.

The South African Competition Commission qualified a bid by a group backed by Swiss mining company Glencore to acquire 75 percent of Chevrons downstream operations in South Africa and all of its operations in Botswana. Chevron is now free to choose between that offer and another that was previously qualified from Sinopec.

Personnel Column

Amanda Eversole is the new CEO of the American Petroleum Institute. She joins the organization from
JPMorgan Chase where she was managing director and head of strategic communications. API represents the U.S.s hydrocarbons industries and sets standards for petroleum, natural gas and petrochemical equipment and operations.

Greek marine lubricants supplier Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc. made Kostas Polydakis its chief operating officer, John Mystakidis its group financial controller and interim chief financial officer and rehired Sal Drago, its former global director of supply and trading, into the same role.

Datuk Ahmad Nizam Salleh is the new chairman of Malaysias national oil and gas company Petronas.