Shell has started supplying lubricants to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan from its lubricant blending plant in Torzhok, in Russia’s Tver Region, said LLC Shell Neft Head William Kozik. Shell’s lubricant blending plant in Torzhok, which became operational in 2012, has the capacity to produce 200 million litres of lubricants per year.

“The first supplies were carried out in the beginning of the summer, while we began to supply serious, large volumes of lubricants in August-September,” Kozik said.

While he did not specify the exact volume, Kozik said that it allowed for a significant increase in the capacity utilisation of the Torzhok lubricant blending plant.

Kozik said that Shell intended to explore the possibility of supplying lubricants to other CIS-countries from Torzhok. However, he said that high export duties prevented lubricants produced in Russia to be competitive when exported to Europe. Russia’s export duty on lubricants had been reduced from US38.3 per tonne to USD36 per tonne in August.