Abu Dhabi’s National Oil Company (ADNOC) has signed an exclusive agreement with Switzerland-based Chemlube SA, appointing the company as the exclusive seller of its Group III base oil in Europe.

The agreement was signed by Abdullah Salem Al Daheri, Marketing, Sales and Trading Director at Adnoc and Robert Nobel, Managing Director of Chemlube SA on the side lines of the 22nd ICIS World Base Oils and Lubricants Conference in London. Following the signing ceremony, ADbase, the new ADNOC base oil brand was officially launched at a gala event, held at the Shakespeare Globe Theatre, in London, last Thursday.

In a statement last Thursday, Al Daheri said the signing of the European sales agreement and the launch of the ADbase brand underline Adnoc’s commitment to achieving the best commercial value from its crude and petroleum products. “We aim to capitalise on Adnoc’s long-established reputation for providing high quality products and our status as a reliable customer-focused supplier. We look forward to working with Chemlube SA to deliver our high-quality product into European lubricants’ markets, where demand for high performance Group III base oils is expanding.”

Joe Rousmaniere, Chemlube Director of Business Development, said: “We are excited to be partnering with ADNOC to deliver its high quality Base Oil to our European customers. Our goal is to provide our customers with competitively priced, quality base oils and lubricants to meet their specific requirements. ADbase is the right product to meet our customers' most demanding requirements.”

ADNOC Refining, an ADNOC subsidiary, produces up to 500,000 metric tonnes per year of Group III base oil at its Ruwais refining and petrochemicals complex. Abu Dhabi’s light, high paraffinic crude, is the only source of feedstock for the plant in Ruwais.

The latest deal follows a similar agreement signed with Penthol CV, an international organisation dealing with the supply and distribution of oil products and petrochemicals. Under the deal, signed in May last year, Penthol was appointed as the exclusive seller of ADNOC Group III base oil in the US.

ADNOC has already completed API SN approval, GM Dexos 1, ILSAC GF-5, and 0w-20 for full synthetic motor oils, and is actively working with additive companies to achieve Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) and European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) formulation approvals.

Chemlube S.A., based in Villars-sur-Glane, Switzerland is a sister company of Chemlube International LLC, based in Harrison New York. The Chemlube group is one of the international leaders in the trading and distribution of base oils. Established in 1989, Chemlube maintains a global network of offices and sale representatives in Europe, Singapore, China, India, the Middle East, Africa, South America, and Mexico. Chemlube International also blends and markets automotive and industrial finished lubricants produced at its plant in Savannah, Georgia.