K.Venkateshwar.Rao

A March turnaround at the only Pakistan refinery with a base oil unit may cause a temporary shortage in the company's supply of lubricant feedstock. Pakistan’s second-largest fuels refinery, operated by privately owned National Refinery Ltd., will be shut for at least 15 days starting March 10 for upgrades and maintenance. NRL will revamp the Karachi refinery’s crude oil processing unit, which has capacity to produce more than 2 million metric tons per year of various fuels, along with its two base stock trains, which can produce a combined 183,000 t/y of API Group I base oils. “The upgrade project of the refinery’s diesel hydrodesulfurization, isomerization and [base oil] units will affect the production of diesel and petrol as well as lubes for some time, but [NRL] will cover up the shortfall with increased production on completion of the upgrade projects,” a senior planning engineer at NRL told Lube Report Asia. The official added that the project is intended to ...

kvrao: Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal Hailed for Growth Edit article Published on April 19, 2016

BY K. VENKATESHWAR RAO • JANUARY 24, 2017 Standard Greases & Specialties Ltd. had intended to gain control of the Andrew Yule Group-managed Tide Water Oil Ltd. upon becoming its largest shareholder last year, but to date it has cooperated with existing management to focus on the growth of the company. In September 2015, Mumbai-based Standard Greases, along with Janus Consolidated Finance Pvt., Alpha TC Holdings Pte., and Tata Capital Growth Fund, made an open offer to pay up to Rs 377 crore (Rs 3.77 billion or U.S. $57 million) for a controlling stake of 226,512 shares of Tide Water stock. Standard Greases later increased the per-share price of its offer, boosting the overall value of the bid to Rs 397 crore. When the offer closed on Dec. 30, 2015, Standard Greases’ and Janus’ combined shares amounted to 29.38 percent, making the company Tide Water’s largest shareholder. Based on Standard Greases’ 27.69 percent of shares, and Janus’ 1.69 percent, Tide Water’s board decided ...

India Shifting Toward Group II BY K. VENKATESHWAR RAO • APRIL 12, 2016 MUMBAI – India’s lubricant market may be lagging developed markets in terms of the quality of finished products and the base stocks that it uses, but it has begun a significant shift toward API Group II stocks, an official from Kline & Co. consultants told an industry meeting here last week. Project Manager Anuj Kumar Singh told the ICIS Indian Base Oils & Lubricants Conference that India’s shift will be driven by the same forces that affected Europe, North America and Japan – tighter air emissions regulations, fuel economy mandates and lube performance demands by automakers – along with attractive pricing for Group II. “This will create greater demand for Group II and other high quality base stocks and limit the market for Group I,” Kumar said. India is the world’s third-largest lubricant using country, having consumed 2.3 million metric tons in 2015, Kline estimates. That volume, which includes...

BY K. VENKATESHWAR RAO • APRIL 19, 2016 MUMBAI – India’s lubricant market attracts much attention because of its trends for size and quality. But several of its neighbors – Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal – are also growing at attractive rates, an industry insider told a conference here this month. At the ICIS India Base Oils & Lubricants Conference on April 5, Gulf Oil Lubricants India Ltd. Managing Director Ravi Chawla said lube demand in all three countries is growing due to economic expansion, growing vehicle parcs and investment in infrastructure. Expansion of the country’s power grid is expected to help drive growth in Bangladesh’s lubricant market. Bangladesh is the biggest of the three markets, with annual lube demand of 73,000 metric tons, Gulf estimates. Lubricant consumption typically tracks economic activity, and some of the things that make the country an attractive lube market are the trends of its economy. It is among the “Next 11” group of countries identi...

MUMBAI – India’s decision to jump straight from Bharat Stage IV to BS VI automobile emissions regulations will accelerate its need for higher quality engine oils, even as relaxed fuel standards create a tougher operating environment. India has lagged significantly behind emissions standards of developed nations. The current standard for most of the country is BS III, equivalent to the Euro III standard that the European Union adopted a decade ago. The E.U. has since moved onto Euro VI. BS IV will go into effect next year, and India had planned to implement BS V in 2019 and BS VI in 2021. Then, in January, Roads Minister Nitin Gadkari announced that the country would skip BS V and move up the implementation date for BS VI to 2020. As equivalent standards have done in other countries, BS VI is expected to force car and truck manufacturers in India to employ a variety of emissions control technologies – diesel particulate filters, exhaust gas recirculation, selective catalytic red...

Like passenger cars and trucks, motorcycles in Asia are facing growing pressure for fuel economy and emissions controls, and this, combined with consumer demands, should raise the quality of engine oils used in two-wheelers, an Infineum official told an industry conference here last month. Speaking at the ICIS Indian Base Oils & Lubricants Conference, Ong Keat Lee, a technologist with the United Kingdom-based lubricant additive supplier, cited India as an example of Asian nations where legislation affecting motorcycle emissions looms. Regulations and demands of manufacturers and consumers will raise the quality of motorcycle oils in Asia, Infineum says. Bharat Stage IV emissions limits – equivalent to Euro IV regulations in the European Union – are currently in effect for two- and three-wheel vehicles. India, which is now the biggest and fastest-growing motorcycle market, recently announced that the country will skip BS V limits and proceed directly to BS VI for two- an...