Belarus oil major Naftan began shipping finished lubricants to Iraq as part of its strategy to expand into Middle Eastern markets.
In March we shipped to Iraq the first batch of 100 tons of motor oils produced in our blending plant here, Piter Katulsky, Naftans deputy sales manager for petrochemical products, told Lube Report on Monday.
The company shipped seven 20-foot sea containers loaded with 1-, 4- and 20-liter canisters as well as 200-liter barrels. The shipment contains SAE 5W-30 grade motor oils sold under the Premier and Garant brand names. Naftan started to produce these oils in the second half of 2017.
At this moment, our finished products are sold in such destinations as Ukraine, Macedonia and Russia. We hope that Iraqi consumers will also appreciate our products. Our sales department is actively engaged in finding new foreign markets and customers, and it includes expansion in other Middle East counties, Katulsky said.
Naftans lubricant and bitumen production facility in Novopolotsk, Belarus, has capacity to produce 200,000 tons per year of motor oils, transmission and industrial lubricants, slack waxes, petrolatum, plasticizers and other petrochemical products.
At its refinery there the state owned company operates a base oil plant with capacity to make 198,000 t/y API Group I oils and 6,000 t/y of Group III.