Lubtam Lubricants & Greases, the first lubricants blending plant in Ethiopia, launched production on Tuesday, June 24, 2014, during an inauguration ceremony attended by Mebrhatu Melese (PhD), State Minister for Industry.
Lubtam, which rests on 10,000sqm of land in Gelan town in the Oromia Special Zone, has been established with a capital of 10 million dollars as a subsidiary of Naztech Petroleum Investment Group (NPI) based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The factory has two hangars, which were built by Dereje Yemaneberhan Construction, a grade six contractor, under the supervision of German Mirror, a UAE company which also designed the factory.
The plant produces automotive, industrial and marine lubricants both for domestic consumption and export based on the standards of the American Petroleum Institute (API), according to Nazar Ibraheim (Eng.), chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Naztech.
The company will start production with 25,000tns, 40pc of which will be for domestic consumption and the rest for export to different countries in Africa, said Ibraheim during an opening speech. At full capacity, the factory will produce 75,000tns – more than twice the current national demand of 35,000tns.
It takes 10 barrels of crude oil to produce one barrel of lubricant, according to a presentation during the inauguration. Lubtam will get its supply of crude oil from ExxonMobil through Millio – a UK based Logistics Company specialising in petroleum, according to Khidir El-abadi, the Sudanese general manager of Lubtam. The additives will also be imported from American suppliers.
Lubtam will blend lubricants for oil companies according to their own specifications, Nazar said.
One of the hangars houses the filling line, blenders, holding tanks, capping machine, labeling machine and wrapper. The second hangar is where the company produces one, four and five litre jerry cans by blow molding; it also serves as storage.
Lubricants are imported to Ethiopia by private companies along with asphalt, with the government setting the price to which Lubtam will comply, Khidir said.
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