Construction on Gazprom Neft-SM's 15,000 metric ton per year lubricant blending plant starts in Finland as Russian output reaches record levels.
At an undisclosed cost, the complex is scheduled to be completed in 2014. It will blend, fill, store and ship finished products, base oils and additives. The blending plant will have a partially-automated filling line and pipe bridges for unloading base oils and additives by truck and rail and loading finished products.
The plant will be in the port of Hamina on the Finland Gulf, close to the base oil re-refinery operated by the EcoStream and L&T Recoil joint venture.
Following Lukoil's lead, Gazprom Neft-SM is the second Russian lube marketer to open a blending plant in Finland. Its marketing business was previously focussed on Russia, Ukraine and some countries in Central Asia but is now setting its sights on Europe, having announced initial plans for the Finnish plant early last year.
As previously reported, Southern Europe and the Balkan states will also see cooperation with Russia. Slovenia has no operational oil refineries or base oil production, forcing independent blenders to import their base oil supplies.
A partnership between Gazprom Neft and the Slovenian energy company Petrol will now allow Gazprom’s Serbian subsidiary Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) to supply the Slovenian and other markets of southeastern and Central Europe with industrial lubricants, fuels, motor oils, domestic heating oil and aviation fuel.
Both companies will benefit from the partnership - Petrol whose core business is the oil product trade - plans to widen its services in Romania and Bulgaria. NIS has started to stream base oil in its refinery in Novi Sad, Serbia, strengthening the company's position as a key petrochemical producer and distributor in the region.
Meanwhile preliminary data from Russia's energy ministry indicates that the country's crude oil production reached a post-Soviet high last year with the help of Rosneft and Gazprom, placing Russia alongside Saudi Arabia as one of the world's largest crude producers. However, a US expert on Russia's oil industry has said that almost all new Russian production has come from fields discovered during the Soviet period and the rapid growth of domestic oil consumption is leading to a slowdown in export levels.