Pertamina to build overseas lubricant plant

Pertamina, Indonesia’s state and oil gas firm, has decided to expand their market and build a lubricant plant in Asia. Andria Nusa, Pertamina’s product and business development manager, announced that the company is conducting feasibility studies to determine the best location for the plant. “Japan and China have recently become the sexiest markets in Asia. The people in the two countries have high purchasing power, demand high quality of service and are quality oriented,” said Nusa. The new plant is expected to cost the company Rp 308 billion (US$35 million). Pertamina is looking to expand its lubricant sales to 546,000 kiloliters, which would be a 20% increase from 2010 sales. The company is also looking at expanding to Saudi Arabia and Germany in 2011. Currently the company’s lubricants are sold in 10 countries, including Belgium, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Myanmar, Singapore, Taiwan, Philippines and Australia. Nusa said, “We hope that in the near future Pertamina can be a world-class lubricant producer.” According to Nusa, there are three categories of lubricant producers in the world: major players with annual sales of between three and six million kiloliters per year; second major players with sales of between one and three million kiloliters and medium players with sales of between 600,000 to 1 million kiloliters. “With our target this year, we’re getting closer to becoming one of the world-class lubricant producers in the world.” Currently, Pertamina produces approximately 500,000 kiloliters of lubricants. Indonesia is becoming one of the top markets for lubricants with sals of 750,000 per year. Other companies are looking at the Indonesian market for expansion, including Ango-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell, which will construct a 100,000-ton-per-year lubricant plant in Java this year. Pertamina has decided it will not construct any new plants in Indonesia in the near future; it will instead renovate and maintain existing plants. (March 4, 2011)