BPCL starts making lube oil in Mumbai

In an effort to cash in on the growing overseas demand for lube oil, Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) has commenced the production of its lube oil in Mumbai.

The company's lube oil base stock plant would have an initial capacity of 1.80 lakh tonne and trial production has already started, S Radhakrishnan, director (marketing) of BPCL, said.

Named Group II Plus, the high quality lube oil is likely to be commercialised by the end of August 2006. Since it is of  premium quality, we expect it to largely cater to the overseas market where there is a growing demand for lubricants, Radhakrishnan said.

Companies like Total, Shell and some others have already shown interest in equity participation for producing Group II plus and negotiations are still on, Radhakrishnan said.