F+L Week 25th anniversary celebrations commence in Singapore

The Annual F+L Week Conference opened yesterday, March 6, at the Grand Hyatt Singapore. 2019 is a landmark year for F+L Week as it celebrates the 25^th anniversary of the annual fuel and lubricant industry event. A quarter of a century ago, F+L Week commenced at the Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa Resort, to expose the latest market trends and technical developments to the Asia-Pacific region. Before it began, there was no regional industry forum delivering technical and commercial knowledge on lubricants, fuels, additives and base oils.

“Every year key industry players take advantage of this once-a-year opportunity to reconnect with industry colleagues and receive updates on the latest industry trends,” said Vicky Villena-Denton, Editor-in-Chief, and CEO of F&L Asia, the major industry publisher that puts on the popular yearly conference. “We are proud to have been involved in the fuels and lubricants industry since 1995 and look forward to preparing you for the next 25 years”, said Villena-Denton.

F+L Week has a tradition of tapping world experts to share their expertise with an Asian audience. After two days of pre-conference workshops, the event kicked off with an impressive lineup of presenters in the morning’s plenary session.

Richard Jory, Vice President, Lubricants Supply Chain from Shell International, delivered a forward-thinking address entitled “Future Energy Mix”, followed by Andreas Pungs, Managing Director, FEV (Thailand) Co., Ltd who highlighted key challenges associated with future vehicle and powertrain design and development, including considerations such as level of electrification, powertrain architecture options, and shared mobility.

Christopher Chadwell, Assistant Director, Automotive Propulsion Systems Department at Southwest Research Institute, touched on some of the contradictions around engine effects on LSPI in his presentation “Taking Stock of LSPI’, while Shuji Kimura, Expert Leader, Powertrain and EV Engineering, Nissan Motor Company, promoted the possibility of a new generation Internal Combustion Engine “Zero Emissions Vehicle” with the same well to wheel CO₂ emissions as battery electric vehicles.

The opening day of F+L Week 2019 culminated with the annual F&L Asia Awards Dinner – a celebration of outstanding contributions to the fuels & Lubricants industry in Asia. Satoshi Hirano, Toyota Motor Corporation was the big winner picking up the “F&L Asia Person of the Year” Award, while Infineum’s Boon Ping Chia became the inaugural recipient of the “Future Leaders Award”. TOTAL QUARTZ EV FLUID from Total Lubrifiants was announced as “F&L Asia Product Development of the Year” and was accepted by Vice President of Automotive Lubricants, Thierry Gourault. Gary M. Parsons, recently retired from Chevron Oronite following 37 years or service, was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award during the ceremony.

Day two of F+L Week continues on Thursday, 7 March with sessions on the SAE Asian Steering Committee Colloquia, and parallel sessions on fuels, lubricants/additives and base oils.