Gazprom to Blend in China

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Russias Gazpromneft-Lubricants plans to establish distribution channels in China this year and to build a production facility there by 2019, the company told Lube Report Asia.

Until now in China we supplied base oils only, but not anymore, Gazpromneft-Lubricants General Director Alexandr Trukhan told Lube Report Asia. We already signed deals with two local distributors from Hong Kong and Shanghai, and in the next months we plan to ship finished products there. Both companies pledge to buy around 5,000 tons annually.

The lubricants arm of Russian energy giant Gazprom Neft expects its sales in China to increase significantly in the next few years. As the country rapidly transits to more complex cars and equipment, consumption of oils with high operating properties increases, and our products [increase] in demand there.

Trukhan said China imports huge volumes of base oils and finished lubricants. Our sight is on a few important regions. Very soon we will open our representative office in China to manage our plans for establishing local blending of our products at the latest by 2019, he said, adding that Gazpromneft-Lubricants will most likely acquire a local production facility that blends a prominent Chinese brand.

At the moment we cooperate with Chinese car manufacturers Cherry and Lifan [on Russia-based assembly], Trukhan continued. But some automakers have invited us to start factory-fill in their assembly lines in China.

In 2014 Gazpromneft-Lubricants produced 485,000 tons of base oils and lubricants. Over 50 percent of its production is exported to foreign markets. Last year we entered 10 additional markets including Israel, Iraq, Indonesia, Costa-Rica, Congo and China, Trukhan said.