Shell launches lubricants plant in Tver region
TORZHOK. Oct 3 (Interfax) - British-Dutch company Shell has opened its first lubricant production plant in Russia, an Interfax correspondent reported from the launch ceremony.
The new plant, located in the Tver region, has design capacity of 200 million liters, or 180,000 tonnes, of lubricants a year. Bill Kozik, the general director of Shell Neft, told journalists that there are plans for the plant to reach this capacity within two years.
Shell's new plant is the company's largest lubricant production facility in Europe, capable of churning out up to 90 Shell-brand products such as Shell Helix and Shell Rimula.
So far, all base oils for this plant will be imported from other Shell factories in Europe, Kozik said. Shell expects to use 11 types of base oils supplied by its own plants, although in the future the company would be willing to procure the material from Russian producers if they conform to the British-Dutch company's quality standards, Kozik said.
At a meeting dedicated to the development of lubricant production in Russia, which took place at the same time as the plant's launch, Bashneft and Tatneft offered their services to supply base oils to Shell.
Shell's new plant is located in direct proximity to the sales market it will serve, Kozik said, adding that its products are intended for the Russian market. In the future, Shell might expand the delivery of its 'Made in Russia' products to neighboring countries, he said.
Governor of the Tver region Andrei Shevelev estimates Shell's investments in the construction of its new plant at 3 billion rubles. "Shell's plant was 3 billion rubles of investments," he said. Kozik agreed with that figure.
To a large degree, the decision to construct a lubricants plant was inspired by fast growing demand for lubricants in Russia, Kozik said. Russia is currently the world's fifth-largest lubricants market after the U.S., China, India and Japan. According to Shell's estimates, Russia might become the fourth-largest this year, he said.
Experts predict that Russian demand for lubricants will grow by 2%-3% per year in 2012-2016, mostly for quality lubricants from the premium segment. Kozik said that the majority of experts believe that this growth will continue until 2020.