Gazprom Neft subsidiary launches Russia’s biggest engine oil production at Omsk lubricants plant

marine oil under the Texaco brand.

The company targets steady growth encompassing all segments and has been able to claim leadership in certain sectors.

“Three years ago, we placed a big bet on the industrial sector – at the time we were lagging behind and today we are the leaders in the segment of hydraulic oil for equipment with high cycle frequency,” Gazpromneft-Lubricants first deputy general director Vladimir Osmushnikov told reporters. “Our highly purified hydraulic oil has been the choice of a large number of metallurgical, road construction and civil construction companies. For instance, we delivered a number of shipments to winter roads, where equipment works under very harsh conditions, with temperature often dropping to -50 С.”

TP-22s turbine oil produced by the Omsk Lubricants Plant is used today in compressors in the entire gas transportation grid in Russia and the CIS. “This is no monopoly, we have been winning Gazprom’s tenders for several years now, edging our competitors. The quality of our products today is on par with global leaders, but we have lower production costs and are able to offer competitive prices to partners, distributors and end consumers,” Osmushnikov said. 

According to him, Gazpromneft-Lubricants is able to reduce the price of oil by 15 percent to 20 percent relative to the same products by leading global brands. The company has acquired permissions by vehicle and equipment manufacturers, and the quality of its products has been confirmed by comparing performance results of its own lubricants and BP, ExxonMobil and Shell products.

In the future, Gazpromneft-Lubricants intends to grab 1-2 percent of Russia’s lubricants market each year from LUKOIL and Western producers. Implementation of this expansion strategy hinges on several corporate programs that have already been launched. One of those, for example, is named Oil Test Serving, and evolves around comparison of performance of oil by different producers in different types of engines/equipment and submitting the results to consumers. According to Osmushnikov, comparable performance properties and the Russian producers’ prices that are 10 to 15 percent lower make industrial consumers change their preferences and choose domestic producers.

Last year, sales of Gazpromneft-Lubricants’ premium lubricant products rose by 7 percent over 2012, reaching almost half a million tons. One of the reasons why this shift occurred was the launch of the Gazprom Neft brand in the consumer market, as well as the full-scale offers to such companies as Mercedes Benz Trucks Vostok, Avtotor, LIFAN, Chery, KAMAZ, Rostselmash, full-scale offers to vehicle maintenance stations, the win in premium product tenders held by SUEK, SDS Ugol, Severstal, Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Works, Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Works, OEMK.

Scientific Approach

R&D support is provided by a group of research laboratories that had been set up at OZSM, Slavneft-YaNOS and MZSM. It also includes the R&D Center for Development and Promotion of Lubricants in Moscow. With the help of industry and scientific institutes such as VNII NP, SvNIINP, Gazprom VNIIGAZ, NAMI-KHIM and global leaders in production of additives, 40 to 70 new products are developed annually.

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