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52 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News ? NOVEMBER 2013 Fluidsslowly be reduced as the water content is increased. PAG ß uids also offer excellent corrosion protection if affected by water; after all, water glycol hydraulic ß uids used in the steel and smelting industry contain up to 45% water. Vessel owners are now all looking at the new EPA VGP regulations which come into ef- fect at the end of this year. They need to realize what they are trying to achieve now and in the long run. En-vironmental compliance should be at the top or near the top of that list. Next should be cost effectiveness and performance. In the past, many ship and equipment managers avoided using vegetable oils and mineral oils as they are viewed as costly and inferior lubricants that require much more maintenance and bring their own set of problems. The petroleum and lubricant industry often dismiss PAGs because they are not compatible with other conventional oils and are not produced by major reÞ ners. PAG ß uids such as Dow?s UCON Tri- dent AW, BASF Plurasafe Enbio TC, and American Chemicals Technology?s Neptune (including EP and XP) lubricants are anhydrous, or contain no water, and offer the performance characteristics listed above. PAG ß uids have already solved high heat and varnish issues in harsh applications such as compressor and turbine ß uids, where even PAOs were failing due to the severe heat and friction (American Chemical Technologies have now received approval from GE to use PAGs in its turbines). Shipowners are now realizing that PAGs can offer more than just a solution to the VGP issue but also the beneÞ t PAGs can have to their compressors and other equipment that are subject to harsh operat-ing conditions in marine environments. PAGs are often said to be very costly, but take into account their per- formance characteristics, long life, environmental foot-print, etc., and they can be proven to be cost effective. Lukoil Marine Lubricants reports that it has expanded its sales in the 2012 business year by 74% to around $200m. Established in 2008, the subsidiary of Russian oil group Lukoil continues to grow rapidly. As Lukoil Marine Lubricants CEO Victor Zhuravskiy recently said, ?Totally supported by our parent company, we have succeeded in developing an efÞ cient, global en- terprise that is currently leading the sector in terms of growth.?As for operative and technical expertise, since en-tering into the global lubricating oil business Lukoil has relied on its Hamburg site. ?Here we are in close proximity to our customers, because Germany, and Hamburg in particular, remains one of the world?s most important shipping hubs. The combination of Russian raw materials, worldwide leading additive technology and German engineering has become a success factor for us.? To round off the connection to Hamburg, shipping line Hapag-Lloyd?s Hamburg Express also uses Lukoil products for lubrication. Stefan Claussen, technical and marketing director at the Lukoil Marine Lubricants Hamburg of Þ ce, sees two factors as being the main reasons for success: ?We are constantly expanding our global network. In addition, we were the Þ rst company to recognize the requirement for new, high alkaline cylinder lubrication oil and be- gan development at an early stage.? The practice today of reducing ship speeds (slow steaming) can signiÞ cantly reduce fuel consumption costs. However, the constant partial and low burden- ing of a ship?s engines requires high alkaline cylinder lubrication oils with a base number of at least 70 mg KOH/g ? a measurement of the capability for neutral-izing acidic residue that forms during the combustion of heavy oil. The performance, consumption and emis- sions of ship engines have been further optimized in recent years, resulting in ultra-long-stroke engines that are operated at even lower rpms. ?The new operating conditions and new engines re-quire a higher than ever level of alkalinity in the cyl-inder lubrication oil, which can be achieved either through increasing consumption or increasing cylinder lubrication oil alkalinity to, ideally, 100 mg KOH/g,? said Claussen. ?Whether under slow steaming condi-tions or in the new consumption-optimized engines, the consumption of cylinder lubrication oil with a higher base number is signiÞ cantly reduced by up to 25 to 45% and protection against wear is also enhanced.?Lukoil consequently recommends the use of cylin-der lubrication oils with base numbers of 70 and 100 mg KOH/g to its customers. The ? ß agship? product amongst these is the newly developed LUKOIL NAVI- GO 100 MCL. ?In cooperation with the engine manu-facturers MAN and Wärtsilä, we have demonstrated the new oil?s performance capability on a variety of ship engines,? said Claussen. ?As an example, the wear rate was improved and cylinder oil consumption reduced in a state-of-the-art MAN S80ME-C Mk 9.2.?Agip Rebrands as EniPowers Ahead in North AmericaAgip has recently rebranded as Eni, while simulta- neously announcing plans to increase penetration of its lubricant brands in North America across all in- dustries. Gianfranco Mosconi (above) President and CEO of Eni USA R&M Co., shares the vision behind the strategy. Gianfranco Mosconi, with a Bachelor in Civil En-gineering and a Master?s in Hydraulic Engineering, has been working for Eni since 1984. He started in charge of the Logistics Department; transferring to the Lubricants Business Unit were he has been in charge for Production Department and then the Sup- ply and Sales Departments. For the past three years he has served as the President and CEO of Eni USA R&M Co. Inc., the company that produces and sells lubricants in the North America market. On September 28, eni held an event in Laguna Seca (Monterey, Ca), with the focus to launch the new eni lubricants product lines to its U.S. and Ca-nadian Distributors. (Laguna Seca is a Superbike motorcycle race, and eni is a title sponsor.) The new product lines are eni i-Sint (passenger cars lubes) eni i-Sigma (heavy duty lubes) and eni i-Ride (mo-tor bike lubes already launched in 2012). ?All Agip product names have been replaced with eni the new international brand name,? said Mosconi.While Mosconi reports good reaction to the change, complete with a moden appearance and the new eni i-Sigma product, he stressed staying committed to the company?s past success. ?Naturally, our legend- ary six-legged dog and our company colors continue to be our logo,? Mosconi said. ?The dog standing proud and strong, supporting the successful brand change from Agip to eni.? The challenge to further penetrate North America lies in building stronger relationships with distribu-tors and national accounts, Mosconi reckons. ?In ad-dition to our new products eni i-Sint and eni i-Sigma with OEM?s specs, we offer our distributors other products that cover all market applications: marine oil, compressor oil, hydraulic oil, cutting oil along all conventional and semi-synthetic engine oil. Let me emphasize once more that our distributors are our partners, to whom we provide any support they need, from technical assistance, dedicated training to prod-uct literature in order to increase sales. This perfectly Þ ts with eni?s global lubricant strategy to build on local partners to be closer to the market. The unique values of eni, the local market knowledge and net-work of our distributors are the special ingredients to succeed in North America.? Lukoil: Cylinder Oil to Reduce Wear, Consumption The U.S. Coast Guard uses PAG type lubricants.MR #11 (50-57).indd 52MR #11 (50-57).indd 5211/13/2013 9:13:39 AM11/13/2013 9:13:39 AM