Russia's energy giant, Gazprom Neft, has had a busy few weeks of announcements in the marine, lubes and LNG sectors.
Firstly, Gazprom revealed it was targetting the Asian LNG market with the announcement that it was in talks with the partnership that owns the Tamar gas field.
Situated off the coast of Israel, Gazprom is set to buy 'millions of tonnes' of LNG once the site comes onstream - likely to be the end of 2016.
Tamar was the world's largest offshore find in 2009, with estimated reserves of 9.1tr ft³ of natural gas. The letter of intent from Gazprom will significantly boost incentives to develop the field, using a floating LNG terminal which would be built by South Korea's Daewoo.
Next, Gazprom announced a licencing agreement with US oil producer, Chevron, to manufacture marine engine oils. Gazprom Neft Lubricants will become the first Russian supplier to join the Chevron manufacturing and distribution network and will supply hydraulic, compressor, turbine and cooling liquids as well as specialised marine lubes. The Texaco-branded lubes will be produced at Gazprom's Omsk and Moscow Obllast plants and have already met standard type approval from Chevron and its major customers.
Finally, the Russian firm revealed plans to build a new Finnish blending plant, with the aim of targeting the European lubes market. Construction of the site, in the port of Hamina, is slated for early 2013 - according to Lube Report's Boris Kamchev - with completion a year later. The plant will include blending, packing, storage and transportation facilities. Annual capacity will be some 15,000 tonnes with the majority of feedstock being mineral based plus a small amount of API Group II and III base oils and similar amount of PAOs.