LNG Sept2009

September/October 2009 Number 15
Africas Thirst
for Mining Lubes
Changes Loom
for Engine Oils
publishers letter
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LnG | Europe Middle East Africa | September/October 2009 | 3
Europe
Middle East
Africa
September/October 2009
Number 15
Table of contents
Features
18
Remaking Petromin
Saudi Arabias largest lubricant supplier has two new co-owners, a leaner structure
and a strategy that calls for increased sales in other countries. The company is also
preparing to conduct its initial public stock offering.
26
More Changes Loom for Engine Oils

This decade has been a period of unprecedented change for engine oil formulators,
but there is no respite in sight. Stricter fuel economy standards will force a wide
variety of engine design changes, an engineering firm predicts, and corresponding
changes in lubricant.
Page 18
34
Africas Appetite for Mining Lubes

Africa has not escaped the global recession, but its mining industry continues to
develop new projects. That provides a rare bit of good news for lubricant companies that supply that industry.
38
Page 26
Environmental Issues Propel Greases

Interest is spreading in the grease industry to provide greases that are better for the
environment. There are a variety of interpretations, however, of what that means.
Departments
Page 38
Cover: Chrome mining plant

in Rustenburg, South Africa
3 Publishers Letter
44 Newsmakers
6 Transportation Trends
48 Product News
10 Marketing Matters
49 Advertisers Index
14 Base Oil Report
50 Last Word
24 Industry Calendar
4 | LnG | Europe Middle East Africa | September/October 2009
By David Ray
transportation trends
One Riders Search

for a Motorcycle Engine Oil
Earlier this year, I joined the growing
ranks of born-again bikers. Thirty-some
years after last owning a motorcycle, I
once again found myself in possession of
one. My new bike is in fact 13 years old,
a 750 cubic centimeter twin-valve cruiser.
My first task was to give it a full service.
One of the first issues I had to address
was what oil to use. The
handbook stated that
the crankcase oil should
be API grade SE or SF,
at a minimum. My bike
is pretty old, so I took
a look at the owners
manual from an equivalent modern bike to see
what the current recommendations were. The
owners manual from
the 2005 model simply
advises to use a premium quality four-stroke
motor oil of API classification SF or SG.
These oils are, of course, passenger
car motor oils, and I started wondering whether they really are appropriate
for an air-cooled engine with integral
gearbox and a wet clutch? Manuals for
motorcycles made after 2005 also recommend SF or SG but additionally advise against the use of fuel economy or
friction modified oils.
There are important differences between the engine oil environments of
motorcycles and most passenger cars.
Traditionally, cars have separate engines
and gearboxes, each with their own specific lubricant. In a motorcycle, space is
more limited, so engines and gearboxes
usually are packaged together and share
the same lubricant.
A few car models, however, have incorporated engine designs that were
similar to motorcycles. In the late 1950s
and early 1960s, Austin/Morris (later to
become British Leyland) and Peugeot
wanted to make shorter vehicles. They
turned engines sideways so cylinders ran
transversely across the
vehicle, instead of front
to back. This allowed
a much shorter bonnet
(or hood) section, but it
eliminated space for the
gearbox. Designers put
the gearbox under the
engine and had them
share the same lubricant.
While working on
my bike, I recalled that
lubrication issues had
arisen in vehicles with
transverse engines. In
the 1970s, the Peugot
204 was used for shear
stability engine tests.
Its gearbox chopped up (or sheared) viscosity index improvers so quickly that
20W-50 oils were converted to 20W-25
in less than 50 hours.
Internal combustion engines and
gearboxes also have different friction
needs. In an engine, the lubricant is sup-
posed to reduce friction. The gearbox,

however, has synchromesh systems that
rely on friction to synchronize gears before they engage. For this reason, British Leyland would only approve oils for
their integral-gearbox engines if they
showed adequate friction in the BL
gear-cone friction test.
Passenger cars with integral gearboxes have not been produced for many
years. But if they had had issues with
shear stability and wet clutch friction,
might motorcycles have such issues,
too? Are there any lubricant specifications specifically for motorcycles and, if
so, why are they not cited in motorcycle
owners manuals?
A quick trawl of the Internet shows
that the Japanese Standards Organisation, JASO, introduced a specification
for four-stroke motorcycle oils as far
back as 1999. This standard has three major requirements: physical properties,
engine performance and friction performance. The physical properties seem
primarily to limit phosphorous levels
in order to avoid incompatibility with
catalysts in future motorcycles. Engine
performance is addressed by citing passenger car oil classifications from API,
ILSAC (the International Lubricants
Continued on page 8
JASO four-stroke motorcycle oil standard, 2005 Revision

Engine performance, API
or Engine performance, ILSAC
or Engine performance, ACEA
or Engine performance, CCMC
SAE viscosity grades
Phosphorous level
Friction Performance
SG to SM
GF-1, GF-2, GF-3
A/B, C2, C3
Eliminated
Allowed if stay-in-grade
0.08 0.12 percent by weight
MA2, MA1, MA, MB
transportation trends
Standardization and Approval Committee) and ACEA (the European Automobile Manufacturers Association). Friction performance is divided into four
categories: MA2, MA1, MA and MB.
Clearly there is a belief within JASO
that wet clutches create specific friction
needs in motorcycle oils.
Still uncertain about what oil I should
use in my bike, I resorted once more to
the Internet. A number of companies specialize in motorcycle oils, and I checked
But do motorcycle oils have greater

shear stability than premium passenger car oils? If motorcycle VI improvers were better that is, more stable
would they not also be used in passenger car oils?
When I first got my bike I noticed
that if I rode it hard, making rapid upshifts, the clutch took a while to bite.
After installing the JASO MA oil, the
clutch bites more firmly, making acceleration more positive and pleasant.
JASO Friction Performance Index

Classification
MA2
MA1
MA
MB
Static friction index

1.70 X <2.50 1.15 X <1.70 1.15 X <2.50 0.50 X <1.15
Dynamic friction index 1.80 X <2.50 1.45 X <1.80 1.45 X <2.50 0.50 X <1.45
Stop time index
1.90 X <2.50 1.55 X <1.90 1.55 X <2.50 0.50 X <1.55
with several for their recommendations.

Luckily, they all agreed that what I needed was a 10W-40 oil that met JASO MA,
so this is what I purchased.
I wondered what other bikers do when
choosing oil for their motorcycles. I am
sure that the oil companies specializing
in motorcycle oils have done their market research, but not having access to
such information, I conducted my own
small, random survey. The majority said
they never add oil between services and
that they leave the choice of oil to the
dealer who performs the maintenance.
Others, particularly those with older bikes, tend to do their own servicing but generally are only aware of viscosity grade. They purchase oil from
a trusted company, usually one who
specializes in motorcycle oils. One biker who works on a tugboat always uses
the tugboat engine oil, apparently with
no problems!
Do motorcycles need engine oils that
differ from passenger cars? To me, its
hard to be certain. The environment
that motorcycle oils have to endure is
certainly harsh. The integral gearboxes are likely to shear the lubricant and
degrade their multigrade performance.
I will stick with my JASO MA oil

from now on. It is much more expensive
than passenger car oils, but the positive
clutch engagement that it delivers is
worth the extra cost. It makes me wonder if lubricant companies and motorcycle manufacturers should do more to
promote the use of engine oils formulated specifically for motorcycles.
David Ray has 30 years of experience

in lubricant, fuel, emissions and
vehicle testing and test development,
and he has served as chairman of
many fuel and lubricant committees.
He is now director of Draycon Consulting
Ltd., in Torpoint, Cornwall, U.K.,
and can be reached at [email protected]
By Scott Gould
Marketing Matters
Will U.A.E. Recover?

Recession Slows Lubricant Hub
In the fourth quarter of 2008, economic activity appeared to grind to a halt.
Construction sites were deserted,
fewer workers were moving into Dubai
(and many leaving), and international trade was stifled by
slowdown around the world in
demand for many different commodities.
Other emirates fared slightly
better than Dubai, due to the oil
reserves on which they sit. But
the impact was felt throughout
the region, especially as crude
prices dropped from all-time
highs to levels not seen in the
past five years. Kline estimates
Prerecession Prosperity
that the year ended with finished
Before the current recession,
lubricants demand in the federaDubai was flourishing and served
tion down more than 10 percent
as a proxy for the prosperity of
from 2007, even though the crithe United Arab Emirates. Dubais
sis did not hit until the fourth
gross domestic product grew apquarter. Lubricant production
proximately 7.4 percent in both
dropped by a larger amount, as
2007 and 2008, buoyed by sizeable
many companies that had kept
construction projects (totaling
large inventories allowed them
U.S. $350 billion) and a thriving
to dwindle.
housing market. The U.A.E. was
The dire situation in Dubai has
also accumulating high revenues
not improved as quickly as in othfrom oil sales and international
er emirates, due to its dependence
trade activity, including lubrion financial institutions, the real
cants trade, driven in large part
estate industry, and international
by the construction boom.
markets. Dubais deep recession
In early 2008, U.A.E. lubricants
has been created by the overall
consumption was growing at douglobal slowdown and Dubais reble-digit rates, in addition to the
liance on other countries to feed
considerable volumes that were A slowdown in construction has idled equipment in Dubai.
being exported to member countries of porate centers. There are approximately its economy. Dubais economy is prothe Gulf Cooperation Council and be- 20 blending plants in the country, with jected to contract by 1.7 percent this year
yond. During this time, the U.A.E. es- much of the production slated for export
Continued on page 12
tablished itself as a center for lubricants markets.
Since its inception in 1971, the United
Arab Emirates has established itself as
a key business hub in the Middle East.
However, with the current recession,
there is uncertainty as to whether
or not the country will be able to
return to the prosperity that preceded the downturn, and this leads
in turn to questions about the future of its burgeoning lubricant
industry. We believe the U.A.E.
will rebound from the recession
and that it will maintain its position as a multi-regional hub in the
lubricants industry.
production, as well. A large number of

blenders established facilities near major ports Sharjah, Fujairah, and Jebel
Ali and at refineries and Dubai cor-
Marketing Matters
before rebounding with 4.4

growth in 2010.
Road to Recovery
The recessions impact on

the U.A.E., and in particular
on Dubai, poses the question
of whether they will be vibrant trading hubs in the future. A large expatriate workforce and high reliance on oil
pose considerable long term
challenges. While business is
currently stagnant, Kline expects that it will be revived,
though it will take several
years to return to its previous
pace. There are many factors
which point to the U.A.E.s
recovery. Among those are
the following:
Its lubricant manufactur ing is more about export
than about supply of the
domestic Emirates market;
In addition, the U.A.E. is
well positioned to supply
three of the big growth
regions, the Middle East,
Asia, and Africa;
The recovery of oil prices
to twice the beginning of-2009 levels has
provided some of the
lift needed both by oil
companies and by those
that service the industry;
The U.A.E. economy goes
beyond the oil-driven
focus of other countries,
encompassing cement,
power generation, and
others;
The government has
declared a willingness
to undertake a budget
deficit for infrastructure
projects that accelerate
the economic rebound.
It may take some time, however, for the U.A.E. to return

to prerecession activity levels
for lubricants. At the moment
the industry is taking a double
hit. Due to the need to conduct
business more cost-effectively, many businesses turn to
high-performance, energy-efficient lubricants resulting in
further drop in consumption.
At the same time, the current
recession causes a reduction in
manufacturing activity.
As businesses continue to
shift toward synthetics, there
will be a market with lower
lubricant demand, although
with higher value and higher-margin products. In order
to remain viable the industry
has to adapt and offer a larger
array of products, which will
require the ability to produce
conventional lubricants for
developing countries and also
synthetic lubricants for more
advanced markets. This is easy
to accomplish for the U.A.E.,
as it has already developed the
foundation to continue to be
successful in the lubricants
business for years to come.
Scott Gould is a manager in the

Petroleum & Energy consulting
practice at Kline & Company,
a worldwide management
consulting and market research
firm. He can be reached at
[email protected]
By Ray Masson
base oil report
Base Oil Traders:

Procurement Outsourced
A large portion of the worlds base oil
is bought and sold under long-term contracts, usually moving within national
boundaries, often over relatively short
distances. The transactions for such traffic are relatively simple. But a significant
portion of base oils move under deals
that are much more complex, and these
frequently involve traders or brokers.
Of course, thats good news for yours
truly and others who make their living
in this kind of business. But most any
trader will argue that their services also
provide significant benefit to the industrys suppliers and buyers.
To understand when traders get involved and when they dont it helps to
divide transactions into three categories.
Historically, base oil plants were built
as part of refineries primarily to supply
the refiners own lubricant operations.
Any excess production was then sold to
third party blenders. The first category
of transactions not counting transfers
to in-house lube operations is direct
sales from refiner to domestic blenders.
Traditionally refiners were oriented toward this type of national business, partly because base oils
did not travel well for long
distances. Truck and rail
were the preferred modes
of transportation, and seagoing cargoes were rare.
The second category of transactions

is base oil trades with other refiners.
Refiners conduct such deals to fill holes
geographical or otherwise in their
own portfolios. The third category is
exports, which are conducted mostly
when blenders cannot find the base oils
they need locally.
There are specialist

traders who focus on one
geographical area or
perhaps one type of base
oil, such as naphthenics.
Direct contract sales are simple because they become routine. Refiner and
blender know each other and dont have
to re-invent terms for every purchase.
When the blender needs more oil they
simply place another order following
terms that were used previously.
Sales that cross national boundaries are
more complicated, partly because they
tend to be spot transactions, partly
because the mode of transportation
is likely to be ship, and often also
because of cultural and language
differences between producer and
blender. This is where
traders and brokers come in, so
it is worth pausing to explain the difference between the two.

A trader will actually transact a contract with a producer (or another trader), buy and pay for the material being
shipped, and in turn is ultimately paid
by the receiver, hopefully making a margin somewhere in the middle. A broker
merely facilitates the sale and purchase
between buyer and seller, and receives a
commission from either side (or both) in
the process.
Some buyers have a perception that
a trading company can cover the market much more efficiently than they can
themselves. This is largely true, since
time zones and language differences can
impinge on the possibility of direct relationships between some producers and
certain receivers. As the eyes and ears
of the market, traders often know not
only which refiners are capable of making the needed grade of base oil, but also
which have the required grade and volume at that point in time.
Finding the oil is only the first step.
The freight angle is a major part of any
base oil transaction in which the material must be shipped to the receiving location. Freight costs are usually a significant portion of the overall expense, so
having the expertise in chartering and
negotiating with ship owners is fundamental to a successful transaction. Indeed, traders often make their margins
not from the straightforward sale and
purchase prices of the base oils, but by
finding economical transportation. A variety of practices can help achieve this,
from use of combination cargoes or parcel carriers (as opposed to stand-alone
vessels), to the tailoring of cargo size to
fill out space on particular ships, to the
base oil report
contracting of ship owners with dedicated tonnage.

The financial aspects of base oil transactions can also be complicated, and
traders can help bring flexibility. Some
refiners have terms and conditions that
are written in tablets of stone. Traders,

on the other hand, can accept payment
terms out of the norm, for example accepting local issue payment guarantees
that major players would reject. Traders
are able to accept lower margins than
their counterparts within the oil majors, due to lower overheads and overall
costs.
Some traders have special relationships with certain producers, gaining
exclusive position when it comes to releasing that refiners barrels. Such an arrangement benefits the producer by attracting receivers to this supply source.
There are specialist traders who focus
on one geographical area, for example
Nigeria, or perhaps one type of base
oil, such as naphthenics, or base stocks
being used transformer oils. One trading company carries expertise solely in
white oils.
When lubricant blenders use traders
they are essentially outsourcing all or
most of the activities associated with
purchasing at least for that transaction. The close relationships between
traders and receivers are cultured and
nurtured, since both parties see potential gain coming from that relationship.
Use of traders and brokers may temporarily subside from time to time, for example if a refiner decides for a time to
increase its direct sales. Balanced against
this, however, will always be a desire to
increase netback value at the refinery
gate, without additional overheads of
marketing and ancillary costs.
The author is biased, of course, but believes the latter desire will win out in
the long run, at least for a portion of
base oil trade. If so, the market should
continue to have a place for traders for
some time to come.
Ray Masson is director of

Pumacrown Ltd., a trader and
broker of petroleum products in
East Grinstead, U.K. Send him
comments or topic suggestions at
[email protected]
Remaking Petromin
New Owners Restructure
Saudi Blender
Filling line at Petromins blending plant in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It is adjacent to a fuel refinery and the Luberef
base oil plant (inset), which supplies base oils to Petromin.
Photos courtesy of Petromin
By Mark T. Townsend
he past two years

have been a period of dramatic restructuring for Saudi Arabias largest lubricants
supplier, Petromin Oils. Since
2007 it has gone from being
co-owned by the national oil
company and a U.S. petroleum
giant to being a joint venture
between a local investment
group and a lubricant marketer with Indian roots. The transition required first a switch
from state control to the private sector and then the integration of two fundamentally
different business cultures.
But management says it now
has a streamlined structure
and revamped strategy needed to become a dynamic force
in the market.
Petromin was formed in

1968 as a joint venture between Saudi Aramco, the giant national oil company, and
Mobil Investments, which
is now part of U.S.-based
ExxonMobil. Aramco held
a 71-percent stake. In 2007,
the partners sold Petromin
to Advanced Petroleum Services Ltd., a joint venture between Dabbagh Groups National Scientific Services Ltd.,
and Gulf Oil International,
part of Indian conglomerate
Hinduja Group. Dabbagh is
a Jeddah-based private firm
with interests in industrial
and agricultural businesses.
Hinduja is headquartered in
Chennai, India, and involved
in trading, banking and energy. Gulf is an offshore subsidiary based in the Cayman
Islands.
Gulf was selling lubricants
in Saudi Arabia before the
transaction 30,000 metric tons per year, according to official statements at
that time. Petromin was already the market leader and
had sales of approximately
100,000 t/y.
Energy analysts say that
under Aramco and Mobils
ownership Petromin may
have struggled to cope with
increasing competition in the
lubes sector and that it may

have actually lost money.
Petromins current President
and Chief Executive Officer
Samir M. Nawar insisted that
the company made money
each of the two years before
it was sold. But he and other
officials agree that the joint
venture seemed not to meet
its potential.
Each [parent] had its
own strategy, Nawar told
LubesnGreases Europe
Middle East Africa during a May interview. Mobil used to have their own
brand, and there was some
conflict of interest. At board
level you could see there
was no clear focus to make
the required changes. Executive Vice President Sajid Saeed said the change in
ownership was probably at
least partly due to losses. I
am sure it was one of the reasons, he said. If [Petromin]
was one of their best profitmaking ventures they would
not have gotten rid of it.
Petromin was also the only
downstream company in the
Aramco portfolio.
Following the modification in ownership, Petromin
has been undergoing an internal overhaul to make itself
more competitive. There are
Samir M. Nawar
Sajid Saeed
Saudi Arabias
Biggest Lubricant
Suppliers
Total: 350,000 t/y
Company Market Share
Petromin
27 %
Fuchs
25 %
Shell
19 %
Mobil
15 %
Gulf
8%
Others
6%
Source: Petromin Oils
remaking petromin
some early signs of success,

but officials say the company
also benefited significantly
the past two years from high
oil prices and a benign macroeconomic environment.
When you look at the
companys performance posttransaction, it has definitely
changed, Saeed said. How
much of that is a result of the
transaction and how much is
because of the economic situation is difficult to say. Dabbagh and Gulf clearly want
to ensure the business will
attract major institutional
interest when it conducts
its stock offering, and that
the stock achieves an appropriate valuation. The new
owners have implemented
a radical change which has
seen the company organized
under business groups, and
this is the influence of their
contribution, Nawar added.
The news that the company is considering a public listing in Saudi Arabia
will likely excite the local
stock market. For one thing,

it would be the first lubricant company to offer stock
to the public. In addition, investors here look favorably
on anything in the energy
sector. The specific timing
derlining the fact that Saudi Arabia remains relatively

immune from crises on Wall
Street. (By comparison, July
1 saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average still recovering
from a 25 percent drop dur-
Each [former parent company] had its

own strategy. At board level you could
see there was no clear focus to make
the required changes.
Samir Nawar, Petromin
is naturally subject to board

approval and ultimately may
be difficult to call. Lingering uncertainty over oil prices and the precise extent to
which local capital markets
remain affected by the global turmoil will require careful deliberation. Still, one
analyst said an IPO is probably close. Saudi Arabias
benchmark Tadawul stock
index rose 11 percent during
the first half of the year, un-
ing the first quarter.)

The company has to be
ready [for a stock offering],
but also the market has to
be ready, Saeed said. Petromin will also need to comply with corporate governance issues as required by
the Saudi market regulator,
the Capital Markets Authority, a point that Petromin describes as work in progress.
To achieve those standards
the company does not rule
out collaboration with a major oil company. If its good

for business then why not,
commented Saeed.
Petromins business revenues are split approximately
60 per cent from the industrial sector and 40 per cent
from the automotive sector,
with passenger car motor oil
dominating the latter. In the
industrial segment Petromin
supplies primarily the construction, transport, power
plant and oil segments.
Data on the Saudi lubricant market are notoriously
difficult to obtain, however
Petromin estimates that total
sales are around 350,000 t/y.
That makes it the second- or
third-largest lubricant market in the Middle East, well
behind Iran, which according to local sources consumes
740,000 t/y, but perhaps close
to the size of Turkey. Estimates of Turkeys consumption also vary, but Kline and
Co. pegs it at approximately
400,000 t/y. Saudi Arabia has
blending capacity of 700,000
t/y, according to Emirates
National Oil Co., of Dubai.
It could even be larger, but
nobody will be able to give
you that figure, Saeed said.
Petromin does not disclose
sales data but is likely to do so
in the run-up to listing in order to comply with regulatory requirements. As part of an
ongoing rationalization drive
to optimize production and logistics, Petromin will consolidate all blending production
into a single newly expanded
facility in Jeddah with a capacity of 250,000 t/y, the largest in Saudi Arabia. The consolidation will be completed
by the end of 2009.
All Petromin lubricants
conform to API standards
remaking petromin
and the minimum API requirements set by the Saudi government: API SH for
passenger cars that run on
gasoline; and API CF-4 for
heavy-duty diesel trucks.
We are not at the top end of
the specs in the car market,
Saeed said.
Like many other markets,
Saudi Arabia faces the challenge of substandard and
fake lubricants. Does it represent 5 percent or 20 percent of the total market we
dont know, but it is definitely significant and poses a
challenge, Nawar stated. He
added that the Ministry of
though Nawar acknowledges

there is a degree of overlap.
The challenge is to reduce
the number of products as it
is affecting our inventory levels, he stated.
Prior to the change in ownership Petromin obtained its
base oil from Luberef, the
Saudi Aramco Lubricating
Oil Refining Co., the sole re-
lineage. Luberef deals with

everybody equally, and a larger volume customer such as
Petromin will be treated accordingly. The refining industrys gradual shift to more
highly refined API Group II
and Group III is not an issue,
according to Saeed, despite Luberefs producing only Group
I base oil. Luberef exports
which Saeed called more competitive now than at any time

in the past 15 years. Its major
competitors are Fuchs, Shell,
and Castrol. To meet the growing challenge it is planning to
enter new markets and grow
its export business with a particular eye on Africa. Currently it is in advanced discussions
to begin selling automotive
The company
has to be ready
[for a stock offering],
but also the market
has to be ready.
Sajid Saeed, Petromin
Commerce in Saudi Arabia is

taking steps to clamp down
on rogue production, but in
practice it is easy to move
production quickly to avoid
detection.
Petromin uses numerous
sales channels including direct
business-to-business
sales, resellers, direct sales to
workshops and a quick lube
network where the sales are
made direct to the consumer.
Our reseller and industrial
channels are the bulk of our
sales, and quick lube is probably our smallest channel,
Saeed explained. The company also produces custom-made
products for Aramco and
the power generation market. Petromin sells upwards
of 250 products currently
and the combined portfolio
with Gulf Oil is around 500,
The Jeddah blending plant is undergoing an upgrade which will expand its capacity to 250,000 t/y.
finer of base oil on the Arabian Peninsula. At that time,

Luberef was also a joint venture between Aramco and
ExxonMobil, although ExxonMobil has since exited the
partnership. Petromin continues to source from Luberef, and Petromin says it
is no worse off, even though
such transactions might have
been viewed as in-house in
the past.
No, said Nawar, suggesting that any previous advantage for Petromin would have
been due to scale of purchase,
not shared parent company
Group I base oil to Europe,

and they are as good or as bad
as any Group I refinery.
The change in the price of
base oil in the last six months
has been a major challenge for
Petromin, according to Saeed.
There is a common perception that a downward revision in price is always helpful, he said. It isnt. We were
sitting on huge inventory, and
we had to pull every trick in
the book to reduce it.
Petromin also faces the
challenge of increasing competition both in Saudi Arabia
and the broader Middle East,
and industrial lubes in Algeria, Sudan and Mauritania,

probably under a licensee
agreement. Petromin already
has a fully-owned subsidiary
in Egypt and commercial relationships in several other
African countries. Within the
next twelve months Petromin
is planning to enter several
other new markets and concentrate on specific product
areas that include agriculture
and power generation.
remaking petromin
As the company goes forward it plans to underpin its

market share by placing a
major emphasis on marketing and brand positioning. It
is also in the process of hiring new staff to support its
growth strategy. Selecting
the right people for specific positions is sometimes a
challenge even in the current
environment, Nawar said.
Saudi Arabia, despite
changes to its regulatory and
operating environment, remains a demanding market
in which to do business. Nevertheless recent reforms are
rapidly beginning to pay off.
In its recent report Doing
Business 2009, the World
Bank ranked Saudi Arabia
16th overall for ease of doing business, 28th for ease of
starting a business and first
amongst its regional peers.
According to the report, it
takes approximately 12 days
to start a business in Saudi
Arabia. The report surveyed

181 countries, with Singapore
ranked first overall.
The economy remains stable, recording a massive budget surplus in 2008 as a result of high crude prices that
reached U.S. $147 a barrel.
Inflation is continuing to recede and fell to 5.2 per cent
in April, the Saudi Arabian
Monetary Authority said.
However the banking system
is beginning to show signs
of strain, with local businesses reporting that credit
has tightened. One of Saudi Arabias most venerable
companies, Ahmad Hamad
Al-Gosaibi and Brothers Co.
is reported to have defaulted
on $1 billion of debt repayments, according to the London-based Middle East Economic Digest.
Notwithstanding the outlook for the global economy,
the Saudi market looks robust,
with many describing it as a
Petromin has a chain of 106 oil change centers in Saudi Arabia.
sleeping giant. In addition to

the growth prospects in the
oil sector, the construction
market has significant potential upside. The country still
has a huge shortage of housing, and according to the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce
and Industry the kingdom
must build at least one million new homes in the next
five years to address grow-
ing demand. Current infrastructure and public sector

building is valued at approximately $35 billion, the trade
journal Construction Week
said in a recent report.
Of course, all of that construction boosts lubricant demand. Thats good news for
the market leader as its new
owners continue working to
make it more profitable.
industry CALENDAR
October 2009
November 2009
13-14. 6th ICIS Middle Eastern Base Oils and Lubricants Conference, Grand Hyatt Hotel, Dubai. Contact: Siobhan Abbott,
Events Registration, ICIS, Quadrant House, Sutton, Surrey,
SM2 5AS, UK.
11-12. 5th International Conference Lubricants Russia 2009, Renaissance Hotel, Moscow. Contact: RPI, Krasnopresnenskaya nab.,
12, Suite 1406A, World Trade Center, Moscow 123610 Russia.
Phone: +44 (0) 20 8652 3887 E-mail: [email protected]

Web: www.icisconference.com
20-22. International Trade Fair for Corrosion Protection, Preservation and Packaging, Exhibition Centre Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany. Contact: Hartmut Herdin, Managing Director,
fairXperts GmbH, Hauptstrasse 7, 72639 Neuffen, Germany.
Phone: +49 (0) 7025 8434 0 E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.corosave.com
22-23. UEIL Congress 2009, Hilton Istanbul, Istanbul. Contact: Independent Union of the European Lubricants Industry, c/o Interel, Rue du Luxembourg, 22-24, B-1000 Brussels,
Belgium.
Phone: +32 2 761 66 85 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.ueil.org
Phone: +7 495 778 45 97 E-mail: [email protected]

Web: www.rpi-conferences.com/conference
13-14. 2008 International Lubricants & Waxes Meeting, Houston Marriott Westchase, Houston. Contact: National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, 1667 K Street, NW, Suite
700, Washington, D.C. 20006 USA.
Phone: +1 202 457 0480 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.npra.org
January 2010
19-21. 17th International Colloquium Tribology, Technische
Akademie Esslingen, Ostfildern, Germany. Technische Akademie Esslingen, An der Akademie 5, 73760 Ostfildern, Germany.
Phone: +49 711 3 40 08-0 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.tae.de/de/kolloquien-symposien/17th-international-colloquium-tribology.html
By Tim Sullivan
More
Changes
Loom for
Engine Oils
CO2 Mandates
Challenge
Automakers,
Lube Formulators
ngine oil formulators have spent this

decade struggling to
adapt to changes in
engine design. Pollutant control hardware deployed in response to clean air mandates
forced development of new
additive technologies and
new oil formulations. At the
same time, pressures to improve fuel economy pushed
lubricant companies to reduce viscosity. Combined
with the never-ending push
for improved lubricant performance, it made for a period widely acknowledged as
the most difficult in memory
for formulators.
Dont look now, but the
coming years could bring more
of the same. According to a
British engineering and consulting firm, a growing movement to improve fuel economy
will spur a wide range of engine adaptations in coming
years, and these once again
will impact the oils that lubricate those engines. Ricardo
UK Ltd., a unit of Ricardo plc,
predicts that oils will see further viscosity reductions, that
they will encounter greater
demands for oxidative stability and that they will need to
be compatible with a variety
of new materials.
In a few locations within
engines, the oils job may become somewhat easier as design changes contribute to
wear protection. But these
will be outnumbered by the
ways in which lubrication
Photo courtesy of Ricardo
reduce air pollution. In a more

specific sense, though, regulation is entering a new era.
For the past couple decades,
those efforts focused largely
on nitrous oxides and particulate matter, and automakers
reduced emissions of these
pollutants by installing technologies that captured them
diesel particulate filters,
selective catalytic reduction
and exhaust gas recirculation.
As a result, oil formulators
had to cut out chemicals that
conflicted with these technologies and cope with soot that
was dumped into oil sumps.
Ricardos Near-Zero Emissions Diesel

engine features a sequential two-stage
variable turbocharger and advanced
exhaust gas recirculation.
Fuel economy will

become the major
driver in determining
what [lubricant
formulators] are
working on over
the next five years.
Craig Goodfellow, Ricardo
becomes more difficult, such

as the need to handle soot
and biofuels in oils and protect against acid build up.
As Ricardos director of fuels and lubricants said during
a 29 April presentation to the
Additives 2009 conference
in York, U.K., the forces of
change may differ, but engine
oil formulators will again be
challenged to keep up.
Fuel economy will become
the major driver in determin-
ing what [lubricant formulators] are working on over the

next five years, Craig Goodfellow said. It will lead to a
tremendous amount of change
more than what weve seen
in the last six years.
Clearing the Air
In one respect, the forces

affecting engines and engine
oils in coming years will be a
continuation of those at work
now: government mandates to
Now attention is turning to

carbon dioxide because of its
role in global warming, and
the idea is to emit less by generating less by consuming
less fuel rather than capturing. Targets are aggressive.
The European Commission
has proposed legislation that
would require member countries to reduce average fleet
emissions levels of CO2 to 130
grams per kilometer no later
than 2015. Current levels are
approximately 160 g/km. Australia and China have both set
goals to cut 2002 levels by at
least 12 percent by 2010.
Japan, where vehicles already emitted lower rates of
CO2 than anywhere in the
world, became the first na-
will continue to offer high

benefits within certain market sectors, Goodfellow said.
One of the larger contributions for reducing CO2 will
come from reducing engine
size. Goodfellow and the coauthor of his presentation,
Ricardo Technical Specialist
Phil Carden, predicted that
original equipment manufacturers will downsize engines significantly, and they
warned that this may in-
Photo courtesy of Gehring Technologies
tion to introduce fuel economy legislation for heavy-duty

trucks. In 2002 it set a goal for
a 15 percent reduction by 2015.
Canada is taking steps that by
next year would reduce 2002
CO2 levels by 17 percent. Even
in the United States, which
has lagged behind other countries in making such changes, Congress is considering
fuel economy mandates that
would cut CO2 emissions by 4
percent by 2012.
Cylinder liner with etchings created to hold engine oil so as to promote

hydrodynamic lubrication of pistons.
The Way to Fuel

Frugality
According to Ricardo, these

targets, which in some cases
are supported by stiff fines,
will require a range of solutions. The firm conducted a
cost-benefit analysis to try to
predict the course of action
that automakers are most likely to take. It concluded that
no single measure is both effective and affordable enough
to meet the challenge.
The most efficient solution
remains application of many
small improvements to vehicles, although hybridization
crease normal sump operating temperatures by up to

10 degrees C. That may not
sound like much, but it could
make quite a difference in
the oxidative stress to which
the lubricant is subjected.
It could indeed be significant, particularly at the higher temperature end, Goodfellow said. The relationship
between the rates of change
in oxidation and temperature
is non-linear. As temperature
goes up, the rate of oxidation
increases more rapidly.
Goodfellow and Carden
also expect a continued move
to reduce engine oil viscos-
ity. Specifically, they predicted that OEMs will lower minimum thresholds for
HTHS high-temperature/
high-shear viscosity, a gauge
of an oils tendency to flow
between the small spaces
that separate rapidly moving
engine parts. Such behavior
avoids wear by preventing
metal surfaces from touching, but it also exerts drag
on moving parts. Some industry insiders have already
raised concerns that viscosity levels are approaching the
point where engine protection would be compromised.
But Goodfellow said viscosity levels for the industry as a
whole will continue falling.
Whilst there is a range
of viscosities in the marketplace today, there is focus on
further reductions, he said.
The future is likely to bring
thinner lubricants to the
market for both light-duty
and heavy-duty segments.
Catching a Break
on Wear
The good news is that automakers may make other modifications that reduce needs
for wear protection. Certain
OEMs have already begun
to coat key wear sensitive
components, such as sliding
valvetrain parts, with ultrathin layers of materials that
are hard enough to provide
extra wear resistance. These
coatings also have physical
characteristics sometimes
due to treatment or method
of application that reduce
friction. Less friction contributes directly to improved
fuel economy, while better
wear resistance allows other
changes, such as downsizing
engines which increases
loads on certain parts and
reducing oil viscosity.
Among the new generation of coating materials, diamond-like carbon coatings

have received the most attention so far and are already
used on a few car models. But
industry is also researching a
range of other alternatives,
such as titanium nitride or
chromium nitride, that tolerate much wider temperature
ranges, provide good wear
protection and that may be
more cost effective.
Goodfellow and Carden
said use of new coatings will
spread to other vehicles and
to other areas of the engine.
It has been claimed by one
supplier that a fully-coated
engine could reduce fuel consumption by 2 percent, they
said, although this would be
an expensive way to achieve
such a benefit.
Formulators could also
gain relief on requirements
for cold-temperature performance. It is known that a disproportionate amount of fuel
is consumed immediately after an engine starts and before it heats up. There are also
several thermal management
technologies that can reduce
engine warm-up times following starting. Ricardo conducted tests showing that the
fuel consumption penalty for
a cold start compared to a hot
start in gasoline-powered cars
is typically 8 percent and that
a penalty of 10 percent is typical in light-duty vehicles that
run on diesel. These figures
indicate the magnitude of the
prize possible with advanced
rapid warm-up strategies.
Obviously, faster engine
warm-up would partially relieve cold-temperature requirements for lubricants.
Currently these are generally
achieved by a combination of
base stock choice and pourpoint depressants. But cold
starting needs in cold climates
can be difficult to satisfy.
Challenges Aplenty
If requirements for a few

parameters ease somewhat,
there are still plenty of other ways in which engine lubrication could become more
difficult. Ricardo predicts
that the fight against air pollution will lead to further deployment of exhaust gas recirculation. Higher levels of
EGR creates a couple problems. First, soot level in the
oil can increase and serve as
an agent of wear.
Second, it can lead to increased build up of acids, so
more EGR could revive acidity concerns that had begun to
ease the past few years. The
shift throughout much of the
world toward lower-sulfur

fuels had reduced needs for
oils with high TBN (total base
number), since sulfur was one
of the chief causes of acidification. Now TBN levels might
engine oil as a way to improve engine packaging and

reduce cost. To the extent
that wet belts win out over
chains, oils would need to be
compatible.
Many of the design changes that OEMs

are making can affect engine operating
conditions and lubricant requirements.
need to increase again with
higher EGR levels, Goodfellow said, a development that
would make life more difficult for formulators.
Engine oil formulators
may also be confronted with
additional performance parameters in the foreseeable
future. The auto industry is
considering wet timing belts
camshaft drive belts that
are enclosed in the engine
and therefore exposed to the
Automakers are also trying

out new seal materials, and
oils must be compatible with
them. The lubricants industry has yet to prove full compatibility with new coatings,
Goodfellow said.
There are a number of
publications indicating that
current lubricant technology
can work with coatings such
as diamond-like carbon, he
explained, but there are also
data to suggest there may
Grams per kilometer

(based on New European Drive Cycle protocol)
Cutting Down on CO2

Carbon Dioxide Emissions Levels of New Vehicles, Sample Countries
270
Solid lines: Enacted

Dotted Line: Proposed or contested
250
UNITED S TATES
C ALIFORNIA
S. K OREA
AUSTRALIA
C HINA
E UROPEAN UNION
JAPAN
I NDIA
230
210
190
170
150
130
110
90
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
Year
Source: ICCT
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
be conditions where there

is less compatibility. Whilst
many tribological studies
have been performed on diamond-like carbon surfaces,
there are many other types
of new coatings which require further work.
Piston Chambers:
Room to Improve
According to Ricardo, modifications loom for a number

of components in and around
piston cylinders, a critical
area for lubrication. One
might assume that there was
little to improve upon concerning the shape of cylinder bores that a perfect cylinder was the perfect shape
and a smooth surface ideal. In
fact, automakers are departing from that ideal as part of
the push to reduce friction.
For example, a technique
called form honing is being
used to make bores that are
out of round, in order to compensate for distortions in
the block and liner that are
known to occur under mechanical or thermal operational stresses. This means
that when the engine is operating normally, the cylinder
bore distorts closer to a true
round shape. This in turn enables the use of lower tension
rings to control blow-by and
oil consumption and reduces
friction within the engine.
Engine manufacturers are
also using laser technologies
to smooth and harden bore
liner surfaces but at the same
time are using lasers and
other technologies to create
etchings and pockets that
can store lubricant, thereby
promoting hydrodynamic lubrication.
Compensating for Distortions

Through detailed design of cylinder block structure and techniques such as honing,
manufacturers are controlling several ways in which cylinders can become distorted.
Machining Deviations
Assembly Distortions
Conventional machining techniques

can cause cylinders to be out of shape
by as much as 7 microns.
Steps such as tightening of screws

can bend cylinders.
Distortions
of Fired Engine
Operating temperatures can cause
thermal distortions.
Source: Gehring Technologies
There is more. Liners are

being made with surface materials that combine elements
such as silicon with aluminum
(Alusil). These are harder than
pure aluminum, the traditional material, with exposed silicon crystals at the surface providing the primary running
layer. The surface topography
and metallurgy on Alusil is
significantly different from a
traditionally honed cast iron
cylinder, yet lubricants are required that provide equal levels of protection in both types
of environment.
As Goodfellow said, all of
these changes can affect the
operating conditions and requirements of the lubricant.
Hybrid vehicles are gaining in popularity and, according to Ricardo, can pose their
own challenges for engine

oils. On one hand, Goodfellow said, a plug-in full hybrid operated mostly over
short journeys in urban areas
would likely run mostly in
electric mode, meaning that
the petroleum-powered engine would seldom run and
might rarely reach normal
operating temperatures. This
would allow accumulation
in the sump of condensation
and other contaminants that
are normally driven off at
higher temperatures.
On the other hand, engines
with stop-start systems fitted
could be subjected to high
temperature thermal soaks
under circumstances where
the engine is shut down after
sustained high speed operation the freeway exit ramp
scenario. This can lead to

problems with turbocharger
bearing fouling, for example.
Collectively, the huge
range of changes looming for
engine designs will pose an
enormous challenge for the
engine oil industry. The increase in operating temperatures and reduction in viscosity may be the most difficult
problems, Goodfellow said,
but formulators will also
have many additional demands to juggle.
As this issue went to press,
Ricardo announced that it
will lead an effort to form a
consortium of automakers,
tier 1 equipment manufacturers, lubricant companies and
additive suppliers to confront
the challenges of reducing
CO2 emissions. Ricardo said
the initiative has already garnered interest from leading

companies from those groups,
and it invited others to participate. It offered to provide further information in response
to e-mails sent to LubesCon
[email protected]
Lubricant industry insiders frequently complain that
automakers do not involve
oil and additive companies
in design changes that affect
lubes. According to Goodfellow, now more than ever it is
time for such collaboration.
In order to enable the next
crucial steps on the path to
improving fuel economy and
reducing the carbon emissions
of road transport, it is essential that the oil, lubricant additive and automotive industries
can work together.
Africas Mines
Mean Business
Lube Demand Grows Despite Recession
frica has not escaped the damage

inflicted by the
recession, with
countries across the continent
watching their economies
contract. But one of the continents strongest industries,
mining, has continued humming along. That has been
welcome news for lubricant
suppliers, as mining became
a rarity for the industry a
customer segment whose demand was growing.
The quality of lubricants
used by mines is also rising,
and African lubricant marketers are working to break
the grip that oil majors have
held on the market. It appears that mining will be a
strong point for the regions
lube industry for the foreseeable future.
Our view is that for the next
few decades, mining will continue to grow, and demands
for lubricants will increase as
more modern techniques are
used, said Adnaan Emeran,
lubricants marketing manager
for Engen Petroleum.
Blasting team sets charges in gold mine in Zimbabwe.
By Olaolu Olusina
Mining Mania
Africa may be the worlds

poorest region, but it is rich in
mineral resources, and it has
certainly drawn the mining
industrys attention. According to the International Council on Mining and Minerals,
an industry group, since 1997
60 percent of the globes investment in mining exploration has been spent in Africa.
Signs of investment are everywhere. Kenmare Resources Plc, an Irish company, is
ramping up production of its
titanium mine in Moma, Mozambique, which is projected to see investments totaling U.S. $450 million over a
20-year lifespan. Paris-based
Areva Resources this year
opened a $920 million uranium mine at Trekkopje, Namibia. South Africas African
Minerals Ltd. is preparing to
begin production on its $2.6
billion iron ore project in
Tonkolili, Sierra Leone.
China Non-ferrous Metal
Corp. plans to spend $400
million expanding a copper mine in Baluba, Zambia,
and building a second mine
and plant in Mulyashi, Zambia. A British firm, Vedanta
Resources Plc, is spending
$500 million to develop Africas deepest copper mine at
Konkola, Zambia. CIC Ener-
gy, an offshore firm, is pursuing a $6.3 billion project to

build a coal mine and energy
plant on Botswanas Mmamabula Coal Field by 2012.
Mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, traditionally one of the continents mining centers, may
be struggling at the moment,
but other areas are starting to
receive more focus, for example the 16-member Economic
Community of West African
States. Ghana has attracted
$5 billion in investment for
mining projects since 1997.
Mali attracted $850 million
in gold mining investments
during the same period.
Pit or Tunnel
The mining industry has

two basic methods for extracting minerals open cast
operations and shaft mining.
Open cast mining digs large
open pits and is used when
the minerals are located near
the surface. It uses equipment
such as earth movers, crushers and treatment plants.
Open cast mines use predominately three lubricants
a high-specification engine
oil, good quality gear lubricant and hydraulic fluids,
Emeran said. Hydraulic oils
probably being the highest
volume consumed.
Shaft mining involves the

digging of tunnels and is used
when the mineral is further
underground. This method
uses rock drills, winches,
conveyors and elevators and
sometimes crushers, as well.
Shaft mining makes use of
mechanised trackless methods and consumes more lubricant, than open-cast mining, Emeran said. With these
mining methods, the main
lubricants are once again a
top quality diesel engine lubricant, good gear oils and
then a standard hydraulic oil.
The hydraulic oil once again
[has the highest volume] due
to the high incidence of hydraulic pipes bursting in this
harsh environment.
Should shaft mining operations revert to the old conventional methods which are
more labour intensive then
one would see a swing back
to higher grease consumptions due to winches and rock
drills being reintroduced on a
bigger scale.
Although mines typically
use multiple suppliers, most
link fuel and lubricant purchases, giving advantage
to international oil majors.
Sources said most of the leading players are indeed big oil
companies. Shell controls approximately 60 percent of the
market in West Africa, according to Emmanel Dadson,
a former lubrication specialist with a multinational oil
Miners drill core of a fluorite mine in South Africa.
African Minings Lubricant Appetite
company who now runs a

consulting business for gold
miners in Accra, Ghana.
Total follows with about 20
percent [of the West African
market], and the rest is shared
amongst other independent
suppliers, he said, adding that
a small volume is brought in
by OEMs who sell genuine
oils for warranted equipment.
In the past few years, Total
also bought up chunks of industrial lubricant businesses
that BP had left idle in Zambia and Malawi. The French
oil major made the acquisitions in order to serve new
mining projects in Zambia,
Malawi and Mozambique.
Shell appears to also be
the biggest supplier of lubricants to mining operations
in South Africa, according to
Emeran. Other leading players include Engen, Caltex, BP
Castrol, Total, Fuchs and Mobil, he said, noting that Engen is the sole supplier for
Mobil lubricants in Southern
Africa. A few specialty lubricant companies, such as Kluber, Bechem and Flexilube,
are also present.
Africans Take Aim
A few indigenous companies are striving for contention. Kobil Zambia, a

fully-owned subsidiary of
Nairobi-based Kenya Oil
Group (Kenol), entered two
major ventures in Zambia
as part of a strategy to penetrate a market long dominated by majors. Kobil Zambia
acquired from Total a 15 percent shareholding of Lublend
Ltd., a lubricants blending
plant in Ndola, in Zambias
copper belt.
Kobil also signed a longterm fuel supply deal with
Albidion Mining Ltd. Albidi-
Namdeb Diamond Mine in Namibia.
on, currently in the final stages of its site construction, will

be mining nickel in the southern region of Zambia for the
export market. Preliminary
mining activities have started and Kobil has commenced
supplies of low-sulphur diesel to Albidion.
Engen, which is based in
Cape Town, South Africa,
has expanded its presence in
the mining industry over the
past couple decades, landing
accounts in countries such
as Angola, Mozambique, Namibia and Botswana. Now
it is trying to continue that
trend, partly by increasing its
service offering.
We are now selectively offering fluid management programs in neighbouring countries to not only supply fuels
and lubricants but to manage
the stock and dispense the
products into the mine equipment, Emeran said. Hence
[we are] not only adding
value in high-performance
products and extra services,
but also reporting and managing the equipment usage

and reliability aspects.
Quality Rising
Unlike some parts of Africas lubricant market, the

quality of lubes used in mining is steadily advancing,
keeping pace with the introduction of new equipment.
For example, between
2002 and this year, Caterpillar
excavators and dump trucks,
Liebherr excavators and other equipment have moved
from using API CF-4 oils to
the CI-4 specification for the
recommended drain interval
of 250 hours, Dadson said.
The improvement in quality is also driven by an enduser desire for longer drain
intervals.
We are experiencing the
need for top-tier lubricants to
extend drain intervals, Emeran said, for example from 250
to 350 hours on modern yellow
plant machines. Certain mines
have successfully explored the
use of long-life lubricants in

winch gears in order to obtain two years life versus six
months, which is typical for
existing equipment.
Less progress has come from
a push for the industry to use
more environmentally benign lubricants in rock drilling, a process that uses greases or oils to lubricate drill bits
and also to remove loosened
rock. As a result, the lubricant
enters the environment. Biodegradable products are available but have yet to catch on
in Africa, Emeran said.
They have not taken off
due to the costs involved and
lack of legislation driving
change, he said.
Sources said the lubricant
industry is generally meeting
the needs of the mining industry; there is always room
for improvement, but there
are no glaring problems involving inadequate lubrication. The biggest problem,
Emeran said, at least in South
African mines, is a shortage
of workers with skills to operate and maintain the sophisticated machinery that
the industry uses.
Mining equipment, especially yellow plant is getting
more advanced by the day,
he said. OEMs such as CAT,
Komatsu and Atlas Copco are
focusing more and more on
the performance and cleanliness of the lubricant.
That may explain the growing emphasis on fluid management and other ancillary
services. Lubricant marketers
certainly have an interest in
helping mining operators to
avoid breakdowns. The more
mines keep running, the more
likely they are to offer an opportunity for sales growth
even during a recession.
By Lisa Tocci
Environmental Issues
Propel Greases
hat makes a
lubricating
grease better for the
environment? For some, its
simply a grease thats rapidly biodegradable, with no
toxic effects. Many will insist on a grease made with
a high amount of renewable
content. Some advocate a
cleaner, safer work place and
less exposure to harmful ingredients or processes. And
others will point to longerlasting greases that extend
equipment life and reduce
the waste of frequent relubrication.
All these factions were
present at the European Lubricating Grease Institutes
annual general meeting in
late April in Gothenburg,
Sweden, putting forth arguments and ideas for making
greases healthier, stronger
and more environmentally
acceptable.
Alan Begg, senior vice president of SKF Group, which
is headquartered in Gothenburg, pointed out that about
80 to 90 percent of all rolling
element bearings are greaselubricated. Grease dominates
the service life of bearings and
gives a major contribution, he

said. Sustainability of bearings therefore depends on
greases, and their biodegradability needs to be addressed.
For the most part though, he
zeroed in on grease life as the
key to sustainability.
About 5 percent of SKFs
business now is supplying
bearings, control systems and
greases for windmill energy,
noted Begg. We make no
grease ourselves we contract that out to others but
we carry out a wide range of
research and tests to understand lubrication so we can
offer the best greases to our
customers.
Ideally, we would have no
lubricant at all, he continued,
but thats not possible, of
course. The one drawback to
grease lubrication is the limited life. Its common to say
that a bearing fails, or the
lubrication fails. But its also
not true. Usually its the seal
that fails, and grease leaks
out, leading to the damage.
In rolling contacts, SKF expects the potential bearing
life to be three or even four
times the life of the grease,
if operating at 70 degrees C.
That is, if the expected life of
the bearing is 44,000 hours,

the grease should be able to
go 11,000 hours between relubrications. But if the operating temperature goes
up, every 15 degrees thats
added will halve the life of
the grease and it wont do
much for the life of the bearing either, Begg said dryly.
Among SKFs latest advances are E2 Low Friction bearings. The E2 stands for Energy Efficient, and the bearings
are designed to have precisely
controlled motion, polymer
materials and specially formulated low-friction greases.
Together, these can cut friction by 30 percent, which
means lower operating temperatures, which in turn can
double the grease life. The
result will be longer bearing
life, and less wasted grease.
Thomas Norrby, R&D
manager at Statoil Lubricants in Nynashamn, Sweden, and a professor at the
Lulea University of Technology in Sweden, told the ELGI
meeting that such efforts are
part of the overall trend he
calls Lubricants Designed
for Environment or DfE. He
described a clear trend over
time for issues to move from
local to global, when it comes

to acting upon environmental signals or issues.
In the 1980s, he noted, biolubricants were first introduced to industry and were
not always up to the job. But
those early products served
as an eye-opener and a dooropener, Norrby said. Today,
theres a recognition that
both the grease and the application must be designed
with an eye to the environment. This requires life-cycle analysis, weighing the
products renewable content,
its biodegradability, and balancing those attributes with
its performance. For every
product you develop, you
need to do these calculations, he urged.
Norrby also pondered the
relevance of biodegradable
lubes, given lubricants tiny
role as part of the crude oil
barrel. Ninety-seven percent of crude oil equivalents
is combusted, he pointed out,
and only 1 percent becomes
lubricants. Changes such as
using biodiesel or ethanol
in gasoline will have a much
bigger environmental impact.
But as petroleum supplies
dwindle, finding a reliable
Environmentally Sensitive Greases
schemes and requirements

Germanys Blue Angel, the
Nordic Swan, Swedens SP
standard, others that aimed
to define and promote biolubricant uses. These efforts
helped a bit, but overall resulted in a fragmented and
safety, eco labels, national

legislation and cost savings.
But what exactly is a biolubricant? Theres a range of
thought. Some say its whats
non-toxic, others think it
should be based on renewable resources, others insist
Photo courtesy of SKF
supply of longer and slippery

molecules eventually will be
a challenge, he predicted.
And using environmentally acceptable lubricants is a
good first step for energy savings, and still offers plenty of
opportunities.
Mineral oil based fluids
will remain with us for a very
long time, Norrby added, although were soon supposed
to have gas-to-liquids and
coal-to-liquids base fluids. But
10 years ago these were just
around the corner and they
still are. Meanwhile, triglycerides derived from vegetable
oils, plant-derived fatty acid
components for making synthetic esters, and genetically
modified designer fatty acids and triglycerides may be
the next steps for bio-lubes,
Norrby said.
Another view into environmentally acceptable greases
was offered by Eric Nehls
of Basel, Switzerland-based
Ciba. Nehls, who coordinates
that companys initiatives in
biodegradable lubricants in
Europe, observed that biolubricants have been commercially available for decades,
but the early versions wedded relatively poor performance with high cost, which
naturally created resistance
in many end users. Those
early defects have been tackled and are being overcome,
he assured. Today biolubricants can match or outperform standard lubricants
based on petrochemical base
oils in the market, and on the
cost side, the situation has
slightly relaxed.
Over the same period, the
world saw a multitude of
SKF believes that reduced friction promotes sustainability by prolonging the

life of bearings and grease.
niche market, said Nehls. In

2005, the EU Ecolabel brought
many of these standards under a single banner. The EEL
is now regarded as the largest
specification for lubricants
worldwide, he said, covering
some 240 lubricant types.
A study by Frost & Sullivan
said Europes biolubes market could grow from 120,000
metric tons per year in 2006
to 180,000 tons in 2013, Nehls
said. Driving this growth are
green public procurement
policies, industrial health and
on a high level of biodegradability. But generally there

are two major areas that have
to be addressed, said Nehls.
First, there are ecological
and toxicological requirements. And second, technical
requirements must be satisfied, such as OEM specifications, national and international norms, and end-users
specifications.
For greases that hope to
achieve the EEL, all the components must be carefully
considered and selected. Typ-
ically, a grease contains 65 to

95 percent base oil by weight,
5 to 35 percent thickener, and
0 to 10 percent additives. Of
these, the base fluids are
probably the most straightforward when it comes to evaluation, he said. Vegetable oils
and either natural or synthetic esters are usually preferred
to meet the EEL standards for
renewability, biodegradability and aquatic toxicity. Some
very high-performing fluids
that are acceptable on biodegradability such as PAO and
PAG unfortunately will not
meet the renewability targets, though they may find
use in some blends.
By contrast, the biggest
problem is the thickener systems. We see big uncertainty
about which thickener systems might be able to earn the
EU-Ecolabel. The two major
types of thickener systems
are soap-based and non-soap,
and both have some opportunities as well as drawbacks.
Soap-based thickeners, for example, are created by chemical reaction. So while the EEL
aspects of the raw materials
may be known, the properties of the reaction product
demand separate evaluation.
And the non-soap thickeners
include puzzlers like graphite,
PTFE, bentonite and others,
many of which have mixed
results when evaluated for
EEL status. For example,
Nehls said, Were now seeing
concern about the unknown
risks of nano products, so its
best to use graphite in a nonnano form.
Thomas Rossrucker, senior

manager, technical applications, at Rhein Chemie Rheinau in Mannheim, Germany, approached grease safety
from another direction: in
the grease plant. Grease production can be made safer by
avoiding handling toxic and
harmful chemicals, he told the
meeting. While safeguards
may be in place in the more
high-tech grease plants, there
are many operations that could
use help to reduce health and
safety risks, he opined.
Polyurea grease manufacturing, for one, is regarded as
a very high-risk operation,
Rossrucker observed, since
these greases involve han-
dling very hazardous di-isocyanates, as well as amines

which can be toxic and corrosive. Due to the high safety standards and expensive
equipment involved, many
grease manufacturers cannot
produce polyurea greases.
One solution, Rossrucker said, is to leave it up to a
chemical supplier to manage
the basic reaction with the
hazardous materials, and simply obtain a nonhazardous,
pre-formed polyurea powder to make the grease. Rhein
Chemie pioneered this approach several years ago, and
tests show that the resulting
polyurea grease can be equivalent to in-situ made greases
provided the right manufacturing method is used. In this

case, the grease maker needs
to have very high-shearing
equipment to ensure the preformed powder and base oil
come together properly.
Another concept advanced
by Rossrucker was the idea of
using special chemical binders to control the dusting effects of many solid ingredients. Among the ingredients
that may create clouds of dust
are boric acid used for grease
bases, and additives such as
silica, molybdenum disulfide
and graphite. These powdery
additives can lead to a dusty,
even explosive atmosphere,
and should not be breathed by
workers. The chemicals also

can compact, making them
resist flowing and hindering
their dispensing.
The use of these additives
requires additional equipment,
like exhaust systems to prevent formation of dust explosive atmospheres, Rossrucker
said. Workers may need to
wear cumbersome protective
gear, and have special training.
Industrial hygiene and work
floor cleanliness also need to
be addressed, he said.
Another Rhein Chemie
business area, the rubber industry, suggests the answer:
Lock dusting chemicals into
a stable, safe-to-handle polymeric structure. Field trials
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in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
show that dusting additives

typically used for grease production such as molybdenum, graphite, zinc oxide,
calcium carbonate or other powdery solids can be
bonded with polymers and
then pelletized. The pellets
then can be handled without
creating a mess, and lead to a
cleaner work place with no
exposure for workers. Examples of such polymeric binders include EPDM, waxes
and thermoplastics.
Typically, the ratio of active substance to binder is
80:20 (ie., 20 percent binder),
but the biggest problem so
far is in finding a polymer
which is compatible with
all grease types and all base

fluids, Rossrucker conceded.
Two essential properties to
consider are the polymers
softening temperature and
its solubility in the base fluid
both necessary to achieve a
homogenous distribution of
the encapsulated additives.
At the very least, the added
binder should show no detrimental effects on the grease
no change for example in
the grease dropping point,
oil separation and mechanical stability. Better yet, Rossrucker suggested, the polymer could be selected for its
functionality, boosting the
performance and value of
the finished grease.
Rhein Chemie is working to make grease production safer.
newsmakers
Newsmakers
2008 GREASE PRODUCTION, BY THICKENER
Worldwide:
1.02 billion kg
Europe:
212 million kg
Calcium, 11%
Africa & Middle East:

33 million kg
Calcium, 15%
Aluminum, 4%
Aluminum, 6%
Other, 9%
Polyurea, 4%
Lithium,
73%
Other, 8%
Calcium, 31%
Lithium,
57%
Lithium,
68%
Polyurea, 3%
Other, 1%
Organophilic Clay, 3%
Other Metallic, 5%
Sodium, 3%
Grease Production Slips
Total reported grease production

worldwide was 1.02 billion kilograms
in 2008, down slightly from the 1.05
billion kg reported in 2007, according
to the latest grease production survey
from NLGI International.
On a comparative basis, including only production data for the companies that responded in both years,
worldwide production slid 2.2 percent,
European production declined 3.1 percent, and North American production
dropped 5.1 percent.
The 2008 Grease Production Survey
Report from Kansas City, Mo.-based
NLGI International covers calendar
years 2005 through 2008, breaking production data down by geographic region and thickener type.
In Europe, total reported grease production was 211,874,000 kg in 2008.
Looking at European production by
thickener type on a comparative basis,
aluminum soap grease output was virtually unchanged from 2007 to 2008,
when it totaled 10.7 million kg. Calcium
soap production declined 6 percent to
30 million kg from 2007 to 2008. Lithi-
Source: NLGI International
um slipped 1 percent to 136.8 million kg.

Polyurea production went down 4 percent to 5.8 million kg.
Reported production in Africa and the
Middle East totaled 33.4 million kg in
2008, down significantly from the 49.5
million kg reported in the 2007 survey.
Copies of the 25-page report are available from NLGI at www.nlgi.org
BASF to Close Ciba Sites?
On the heels of its acquisition of Ciba,

BASF in July said it is considering restructuring, selling or closing 23 former
Ciba production sites. BASF also plans
to consolidate more than half of Cibas
sales and administrative sites and to cut
3,700 jobs.
It was April when BASF, the Ludwigshafen, Germany-based chemical giant,
completed its acquisition of Ciba, which
was headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. Ciba offered a wide range of lubricant additives, including antioxidants,
antiwear agents, metal deactivators, cor-
rosion inhibitors and pour-point depressants. Its process and lubricant additives
business fell under a plastic additives
segment, which is being integrated into
BASFs performance chemicals division.
Ciba had 55 production sites. BASF
plans to decide by the first quarter of
next year what to do with the 23 that
are up for disposition. Ciba also had
70 sales and administrative offices, 36
of which are to be consolidated by the
end of 2010. Job cuts are scheduled to be
completed by 2013, though most would
take effect by the end of next year.
Court: Monomers Must be

Registered
The European Unions highest court

affirmed in July a provision of the
REACH chemical regulation that requires registration of monomers even
though the law exempts polymers made
from them. Some monomers are used in
the production of a variety of chemicals
used by the lubricants industry.
newsmakers
Plaintiffs in the case included German

chemical maker C.H. Erbsloeh KG.; Lake
Chemicals, a British provider of chemical services; the former Hercules Inc.,
which is now part of Ashland Inc.; and
S.P.C.M., a French supplier of organic
chemicals. They argued that it is neither
fair nor logical to require registration of
monomers when polymers made from
them need not be registered.
In its decision, the court noted that
polymers were exempted from registration largely because there are so many
of them and because in practical terms
it would have been difficult to register
them. The REACH law states that polymers may be subject to registration at
some point in the future.
The court also concluded that some
deference should be given to the law
because of the importance of its purpose to protect human health.
With few exceptions, REACH requires
the registration of chemicals made in or
imported into the EU. Suppliers are required to provide documentation of safety testing and to show that they have
communicated down their supply chains
about the safe use of their products.
Prista Acquires Bogdany Petrol
Bulgarian lubricant marketer Prista

Oil agreed in June to buy 92 percent of
Hungarian petroleum specialty manu-
facturer Bogdany Petrol Ltd. Prista said

it plans to double the size of Bogdany
Petrols operations and to use it as a vehicle for increased lubes sales in Hungary.
Lanxess Buys Polyalcohols Maker
Lanxess AG announced in June an

agreement to acquire the business and
production assets of Chinese-based Jiangsu Polyols Chemical Co., a producer of polyalcohols that can be used in
lubricants. Lanxess said it already is a
major supplier to China of trimethylopropane (TMP), a polyalcohol used in
the production of synthetic lubricants,
solvent-free coatings, polyurethanes
and alkyd resins.
Lanxess, which is based in Leverkusen, Germany, said it plans to integrate
Jiangsu Polyols into its global operations. Jiangsu Polyols is located in Jiangsu Provinces Liyang Liqiang Industry Zone and produces approximately
15,000 t/y of TMP, 2,000 t/y of di-TMP,
2,500 t/y of cyclic TMP and 10,000 t/y of
calcium fornate.
It reported sales of 10 million for
2008 and employed 170.
newsmakers
Bogdany Petrol is located in the city

of Nyirbogdany, in northeastern Hungary. It manufactures industrial oils
such as quenching and cleaning fluids,
technical white oils, and insulating paraffins and gels, among other products. It
was founded in 2000 and reported sales
revenue of of 6.2 billion Hungarian florint (23 million) in 2007.
Prista said the transaction is part of
its strategy to diversify both its range of
products and raw material supply. It added that Bogdany Petrol also gives it greater access to an attractive country market.
Hungary is undoubtedly one of the
most developed countries of Eastern
Europe, a good place for investment and
a [unique] position for development of
Prista Oil in Central and Northeastern Europe, too, said Plamen Bobokov,
chairman of the Management Board of
Prista Oil. We believe the acquisition
will help develop the business of Prista Oil as a whole and in particular the
main business of Prista lubricants.
Prista said it sees opportunities for synergies between the two companies supply chains, production activities and marketing. Prista officials also believe they
can help turn Bogdany Petrol into one of

Europes largest suppliers in its sector.
Prista, which is based in Sofia, already
claims to be one of the largest lubricant
suppliers in Eastern Europe. It reported
sales revenue of 254 million on 178,000
metric tons of lubricants in 2008. It also
owns a battery business.
Neste, Bapco Form Joint Venture
Neste Oil, Bapco and a government

holding company formally created a previously announced base oil joint venture
in June. The agreement gives oil company Bapco and Oil and Gas Holding Co.
a combined 55 percent of Bahrain Lube
Base Oil Co., which will operate an API
Group III base oil plant in Sitra, Bahrain.
Neste holds the remaining 45 percent.
Neste officials said construction has
begun and that the plant is scheduled to
open in the second half of 2011. Designs
call for it to have capacity of 400,000
metric tons per year.
Neste is a refiner based in Espoo, Finland. Bapco is Bahrains national oil company, and Oil and Gas Holding is a joint
stock company controlling the governments energy sector investments.
The project is expected to cost between U.S. $400 million and $450 million. Last year the partners awarded a
$314 million contract to Samsung Engineering for engineering, procurement
and construction.
Lee Replaces Ong at Petronas
Petronas has promoted S.K. Lee to the

position of senior manager of technical
services. He replaces Eng Kiang Ong,
who retired 1 June to start a consultancy, EK Energy, in Selangor, Malaysia.
S.K. Lee
Emarat Links with Al Yousuf
Pristas new Hungarian base, Bogdany Petrol, in Nyirbogdany.

Photo courtesy of Prista
Emirates General Petroleum Corp.,

better known as Emarat, agreed in
July to have its lubricants and specialty
products sold in Al Yousuf Motors spare
parts stores. The oil products marketer,
which is based in Dubai, hailed the deal
as a way to offer its lubricants to a wider audience.
Emarat already markets lubricants
through its chain of 174 service stations,
its Lube Express chain of oil change
centers and other facilities such as car
washes and tire centers.
Al Yousuf, which is also headquartered in Dubai, operates a chain of 21
parts stores in the United Arab Emirates. The companys Commercial and
Retail unit also owns supermarkets, hypermarkets and repair shops that will
carry Emarat lubricants.
newsmakers
Hocem Adds Group II, III
Oil products supplier Hocem has begun carrying API Group II and III base
stocks, adding to the Group I stocks
that it carried in the past. The company,
which is based in Hamburg, Germany,
said its base stocks can be delivered to
customers around the world by transhipment through ports in the Baltic
and Black seas.
The expansion of the base stock portfolio comes after the company began
distributing slack wax and paraffin wax
last year. Hocem, formally known as
Haase Oil Chemical GmbH, operates
chemical tank terminals in Antwerp
and in Eastham, U.K. The company did
not disclose the source of its Group II
and III base oils.
Smith Takes Lead at Polartech
Polartech Ltd. in June appointed Barry Smith to be its chief executive officer. Smith has more than 20 years of
experience in the industrial lubricants
sector and comes to his new post from
Castrol, where he was marketing and
technology director for industrial lubricants and services.
Polartech is based in Manchester,
U.K., and markets metalworking fluids,
as well as additives and additive packages for metalworking fluids.
Croda Closing Wilton Plant
Croda International announced in August that it will close a Wilton, U.K., plant
that makes esters and polyalkylene glycols. The company attributed its decision
to a recent announcement that Dow will
close a plant that provides feedstock.
Dows facility is located nearby and
produces ethylene oxide and glycol. It is
slated to close in January, and the Croda
plant will close the same month. The
Croda plant employs 125 people.
Esters and PAGs are both used as synthetic lubricant base stocks. Croda said
the closure will cost it 13 million while
allowing a write-off of 5 million.
E-mail company news and personnel
announcements to [email protected],
or fax to +1 703 536 0803.
product news
Product news
How to Decide about Biocides
EHD Rig Gets Upgrade
Deciding on the appropriate concentration of biocide to use in metalworking fluids and other lubricants can be
challenging because of the balancing
act between cost effectiveness and the
need to prevent biofouling and microbial contamination. Taunovate II testing from Dow Biocides tests for a wide
variety of anaerobic bacteria, making it
easier to determine the type and amount
of biocide needed.
The test can reduce costs for machinist that may unnecessarily be using too
much biocide. On the other hand, it may
lead to increased effectiveness of biocides
for those that may be using too little.
www.dowbiocides.com
PCS Instruments has upgraded its

elastohydrodynamic lubrication rig,
EHD2. Improvements include updated
software for Windows XP, a two-fold
increase in camera resolution, a better
spectral response curve and a profile
generator for presetting loads, temperatures, and speeds for automatic full film
thickness plots.
The new version also has an automatic fixed spectrometer, manually set
zero film, and automatic three dimensional mapper images. This means users
no longer have to interfere after the establishment of zero film thickness. Upgrades for current users include the XP
software, firewire monochrome camera,
a fixed grating spectrometer, and a standalone electronics unit with single serial
cable pc connection.
www.pcs-instruments.com
High throughput anaerobic testing
EHD2 from PCS Instruments
Nynas Offers Heavy Pale Oils
Naphthenic base stock supplier Nynas

is introducing two new polymer modified oils, Nynas PMBT 30 and Nynas
PMBT 40, and three non-polymer modified oils, Nynas BNS 400, Nynas BNS
600, and Nynas BNS 600. These heavy
specialty oils can be used across a wide
temperature range for a variety of uses.
The PMBT oils can replace bright stock
on a one-to-one basis, the company said,

eliminating the need for reformulation.
The BNS oils have good heat stability
and oxidation inhibitor response as well
as reduced volatility compared to standard naphthenic oil grades, and reduced
aromatic content and aniline points relative to paraffinic bright stocks.
www.nynas.com
Grease Guns and Pumps
Timken Co. has introduced four new

lubrication devices in Europe. The Deluxe series lever-type grease gun is said
to be simple to load and is manufactured
from high-pressure cast iron to endure
harsh operating conditions while applying grease evenly. The 18-volt battery powered grease gun comes with
two rechargeable batteries that can be
alternated to reduce downtime.
The standard-duty, high-pressure 55:1
grease pump is intended for stationery or
portable systems and distributes grease
up to NLGI 2 from 35, 120, or 400 lb.
containers. Its features include doubleaction design and exhaust mufflers for
reduced noise production and air consumption. The heavy-duty, high-pressure 55:1 grease pump intended for longer dispensing lines distributes grease up
to NLGI 3 from 120 or 400 lb. containers
even in cold weather or strenuous operating conditions, claims Timken.
Kits are available for the guns which
include replacement parts, accessories,
and all-purpose industrial grease. Accessories include drum covers, mounting adapters, and hose hook-up installation kits.
www.timken.com
Timkens battery powered grease gun and high

pressure grease pump
Press, Lube Made for Each Other
Siempelkamp and Kluber Lubrication

have teamed up to produce SicoLube
Speedoil KL 260 for use with the ContiRoll press and SicoLube Chaincarpet
Oil KL 240 for use with Siempelkamps
Kusters and METSO ContiPress lines. Designing the presses with the involvement
of chemists from the lubricant manufacturer enables the creation of machinery
that produces at high rates while minimizing expenses for items such as maintenance, power, and oil consumption.
SicoLube Speedoil KL 260 is a synthetic high-temperature oil with a low
coefficient of friction, excellent creeping capability, and strong adhesive
properties, according to the companies.
SicoLube Chaincarpet Oil KL 240 offers
a low coefficient of friction, low energy requirements, resistance to residue
buildup and reduced maintenance, say
Kluber and Siempelkamp.
www.klueber.com
Becrosan is Boron-free
New worker protection legislation in

Europe requires warning labels on materials that include hazardous boric acid
and may require expensive equipment
licenses. Lubrizol now offers Becrosan
CP 2125 as a safe alternative to boron
amine systems. Free from boron and
secondary amines, it is an excellent liquid corrosion inhibitor designed for use
in the production of industrial cleaners
as well as synthetic and semi-synthetic
metalworking fluids, Lubrizol says.
The corrosion inhibitor can reduce
cost to customers due to a concentrated
formula that contains 95 percent active
material, decreasing the amount of inventory needed, reducing handling and
disposal of packaging, and eliminating
need to invest in safety precautions for
employees who would otherwise be exposed to boric acid powder.
www.lubrizol.com
Badger Meter Handles Low Flow
Badger Meter control valves allow

synthetic fuel and lubricant producers
to maintain low flow rates even under brutal conditions, says the supplier,
Pump Engineering. The durable stainless steel Badger RC200 valve model is
compact, comes in angle or globe patterns, and is available in inch and
inch sizes.
Intended for sampling, additive injection, and pH control of liquids and
gases, it has a flow coefficient range
0.0000018 to 2.5 Cv, dispenses at ratios
ranging from 50:1 to 15:1, accommodates
temperatures of -80 to 500 degrees C,
and can withstand pressure of up to
5,000 psi. The RC200 can be supplied
with pneumatic or electric actuators
and positioners.
www.pumpeng.co.uk
Lubrizols boron-free corrosion inhibitor
E-mail product news to [email protected], or fax to +1 703 536 0803.
Advertisers INDEX
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ABB
21
Afton Chemical
31
Alhamrani Fuchs Petroleum
13
ChemTech
47
Chevron
29
Chevron Oronite
inside back cover
Chevron Phillips
8
Ciba
17
Ergon
inside front cover
ExxonMobil Chemical
5
ExxonMobiil Research & Engineering
23
Infineum
37
Inolex
12
InS Services (UK) Ltd.
49
International Colloquium on Tribology 41
Lub<>Line
12
Lubrizol
back cover
LubesnGreases
25
LubesnGreases
Europe Middle East Africa
42, 45
Nynas
11
Petronas
33
Prista Oil
9
Qatar Lubricants
16
Rhein Chemie
15
S-Oil
7
Soltex
47
Universal Lubricants
43
Wolf Lake Terminals
42
By Tim Sullivan
last word
Iraqi Base Oils

Still Stanched
Basra refinery
As the war in Iraq winds down, Iraqis are trying to revive their crippled oil
industry. Among the operations that
are underperforming are base oil plants
that in the past made it a major supplier
in the region. An industry analyst says
the country could return to that status.
But it must clear mechanical and political hurdles first.
Iraq has base oil plants in Baiji, Daura and Basra, with nameplate capacities
of 250,000 metric tons per year, 120,000
t/y and 100,000 t/y, according to Saadalla
Al-Fathi, a consultant with Dome International LLC, a Dubai-based supplier of
equipment and services for the petroleum
industry. He is scheduled to present a paper about Iraqs base oil market in October at the ICIS Middle Eastern Base Oils
and Lubricants Conference in Dubai.
The base oil plants operate far below
their capacity, Al-Fathi said, but the reasons have less to do with the most recent war than with events that preceded
it. The plants were damaged during the
1990-1991 Gulf War but were largely repaired. It was after that war that their
output and status really began to decline.
The operator the national Oil Refineries Administration was unable to obtain chemicals and spare parts, Al-Fathi
said, due to sanctions that the United
Nations imposed on Saddam Husseins
government. By 2002 the plants together
were producing approximately 200,000
t/y around 40 percent of capacity.
Al-Fathi said production continued to
fall after the U.S.-led invasion the following year, though it is not clear why.
The war in 2003 did not cause any new
damage directly to the lube oil plants,
he said. But in the chaos and instability that prevailed since then, production
has taken a dive for unclear reasons. Production is probably close to 15 percent of
nameplate capacity. This has opened the
door for the private sector to fill the gap
by imports of unsecured qualities.
Al-Fathi suggested it is within Iraqs
reach to restore its base oil plants to former levels of operation.
There is no doubt that if Iraq [base

oil] plants are properly repaired and
modernized, their production can fill local needs with a surplus of base stocks
remaining for export to neighboring
countries or the international market.
Political issues, however, could pose
more of a problem. The potential riches
of the countrys broader oil industry
have been a source of tension between
the central government, which is composed mostly of Arabs, and the Kurdish
Autonomous Region in the north. The
Kurdish regional government would
like to expand its borders, and there are
some sentiments to annex oil resources
that are currently outside of its control.
Baghdad, not surprisingly, bristles at
the prospect.
The national government is eager to
establish rules of the road for the oil
sector so that it may begin attracting
foreign investment needed to revive the
industry. In late July the cabinet took a
step in that direction by approving the
establishment of a national oil company. It was clear, however, that that measure would not take effect without an
agreement about distribution of oil revenues, and such an agreement has long
been stalled by conflict over issues such
as the border of the Kurdish region.
And so the potential of Iraqs base oil
plants may have to wait a while longer
to be fulfilled.

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September/October 2009 Number 15

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