Rosneft increased its sales of packaged lubricants sales by 13% in 2020 and expanded distribution in Russia and abroad, the company announced last week. The company also recently started to export base oils in flexitanks.
“RN-Lubricants, Rosneft’s lube arm, increased its packaged lubricants sales to 109,000 [metric] tons in 2020,” the company said in its March 12 press release. It added that its industrial oil sales increased 25% year on year, while sales in the retail segment, which includes motor oils, posted a 14% increase.
“This result has been achieved thanks to the expanded product assortment, having in mind the updated market demands and the effective quality control of our production,” the company said.
Rosneft estimated that Russia’s demand for passenger car motor oils slumped by 3.2% in 2020. “In the packaged lubricants segment the company fared pretty well during the pandemic.”
Also, the company reported that in January it started to export base oils in flexitanks.
“As a result, we expect more effective sales that could lead to a 10% increase of demand for our products [in 2021],” Rosneft said. In February, the company completed its first flexitank shipment of Rosneft Basic Grade-branded base oil.
In 2020, Rosneft expanded its lubricant distribution network by 15%, to 150 official distributors in Russia and abroad. The company’s lubricants are now sold in 29 countries around the world, including China, Turkey and Kazakhstan.
“The expanded network allowed the company to strengthen its product brand in the markets of Asia, Africa and the Middle East,” the company said.
Rosneft produces over 1,000 types of base oils, finished lubricants, greases and additives at seven production sites in Russia locations: two in Novokuibyshevsk, Angarsk, Ryazan, Moscow, Yaroslavl and Ufa. After Lukoil, Rosneft is the second-largest lube marketer in Russia. In 2020, it produced 900,000 tons of base oils and lubricants combined, according to the company.