Aramco sets regional marketing zones for base oils business

LONDON (ICIS) — Saudi-led base oils group Aramco is officially dividing its global business into “zones” served by each of its arms that previously sold base oils under different brands, it announced at an evening reception on Thursday.

Aramco-owned US business Motiva, South Korea’s S-Oil and the Middle Eastern Luberef will now sell their products under Aramco brands, meaning brands such as Motiva’s STAR will not be marketed anymore.

Mahdi al Adel, Aramco’s base oil director, said the heart of the strategy will be a “zonal market structure” where the companies each have a marketing zone.

Luberef will market in the Middle East and Africa, Motiva in the Americas and S-Oil in Europe and Asia.

They are “transitioning to zonal structure in 2019”, he said.

The brands aramcoDURA, aramcoPRIMA and aramcoULTRA will be offered by affiliates.

Rebranding efforts have started, said Al-Adel; some are almost complete, and it is “important to note there are no changes to products”.

This paves the way for the businesses to offer a global slate of products that are the same across regions, he said.

“We are working to ensure we harmonise to close some specification gaps between same products that come out of these facilities.”

He was speaking on the sidelines of the 23rd ICIS World Base Oils & Lubricants conference in London.