Hyrax to Open Sri Lanka Blending Plant BY K. VENKATESHWAR RAO
Hyrax to Open Sri Lanka Blending Plant BY K. VENKATESHWAR RAO
Malaysian company Hyrax Oil plans
to open a lubricant blending plant next week at an oil terminal in
Muthurajawela, Sri Lanka.
“The plant was built through a strategic collaboration with
the Ceylon Petroleum Corp. under a build, operate, and transfer agreement, where both
parties forged a supply agreement for increased collaboration and partnership,”
Hyrax Oil Media Advisor Dhanushka Jayawardene told Lube Report. “This is the second
lubricant blending plant for Hyrax Oil, [with] the first being in Johannesburg,
South Africa.”
The 43,000 metric tons per year lubricant blending plant was to
be built with an investment of U.S. $30 million on a 2.2 hectare site,
according to a report by Bernama, Malaysia’s state-owned news agency, in May
2016 when the project was first announced.
In May 2014, Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Petroleum Resources
Development approved the two companies’ proposal to establish a blending plant.
Ceylon Petroleum was not permitted to manufacture lubricants in Sri Lanka at
the time, and it wasn’t until March 2016 that the government granted CPC a
license to do so, seeding the company $13 million for the new business. Until
then, only Chevron Lanka and Indian Oil Corp.’s Lanka IOC held
blending licenses.
Industry insiders and government officials say trade of
counterfeit lubricants has beleaguered the island country. The government
is trying to check smuggling of lubricants and counterfeiting trade by enabling
local production of quality products.
Currently 13 companies hold licenses to sell lubricants in Sri
Lanka: Chevron Lubricants Lanka PLC, Lanka IOC, McLarens Lubricants Ltd., United Motors Lanka Ltd., N. M. Distributors Ltd., Associated Motorways Ltd., Laugfs
Lubricants Ltd., TVS Lanka Ltd., Dynamic Motors Ltd., Interocean
Lubricants Ltd., Toyota Lanka Ltd., Navaloka ABC Lubricants Ltd. and Ceylon
Petroleum Corp.
Kuala Lampur-based Hyrax Oil Sdn. produces transformer oil,
motor oil and other specialty lubricants, exporting to about 40 countries in
the Asia-Pacific region, Africa and the Middle East. In Mozambique, it is
jointly incorporated with state-owned Petroleos de Mocambique, or Petromoc.
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