Russian base oil exports dropped by 13 percent in 2015, according to data compiled by Legion Oil & Gas LLC.
That drop put exports down to 940,000 tons.
“It was a challenging year for Russian base oils,” commented Legion Oil & Gas LLC base oils project manager Denis Varaksin. “Export volumes dropped at their quickest pace since the 2009 crisis, and fell below 1 million tons per year for the first time in almost a decade.”
“The global market oversupply and the halting of the Lukoil base oil unit in the Nizhny Novgorod refinery, as well as production issues at Perm refinery, were the main reasons for this decrease,” Varaksin added.
Legion Oil & Gas LLC expects Russian base oil exports to stabilize in 2016, as refinery activities will try to capitalize on lower feedstock costs, lower export duties and an anticipated price recovery.
Lukoil remained the biggest base oil exporter out of Russia, with market share above 46 percent.
In 2015, the producer shut down a base oil unit at Nizhny Novgorod with a volume of 250,000 tons per year. Lukoil continued base oil exports from the Perm and the Volgograd refineries.
Rosneft held the second biggest share of Russian base oil exports at about 25 percent. This included its share in the Yaroslavl refinery. The company exported base oils from the Angarsk and Novokuibyshevsk refineries.
The Baltic port remained the main export gate for Russian base oil exports, at about 400,000 tons or roughly 40 percent of all exports loaded in 2015. The Black Sea market accounted for 20 percent, while China absorbed 7 percent.
The Angarsk refinery remained the predominant supplier to China, sending almost 70,000 tons to this country by rail.
Russia’s biggest flexi-container export port lost about half of its base oil export volumes in 2015. It loaded about 43,000 tons.
Tatneft started exporting Group II and Group III base oils from its Taneco refinery in 2015. All in all, the company exported more than 4,500 tons to Europe, the United Arab Emirates, India and other countries.
Legion Oil & Gas LLC is a base oil and slack wax supplier focused on Russia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and European sources. Based in Berlin, Germany, Legion Oil & Gas LLC keeps costs low and quality high by using cost-efficient storage and offices.
Source: Legion Oil & Gas LLC
