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aving long ignored Southeast Asia, PT Pertamina is now looking at neighboring countries as a potential market for its lubricant products.

Through its business unit Pertamina Lubricant, the state-owned oil and gas company has so far successfully exported its lubricant products to 23 countries worldwide, including Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan and Timor Leste.

Pertamina Lubricant spokesman Abdul Hafid Rasjid said in Jakarta on Monday that Pertamina planned to market its lubricant products this year, for the automotive and industrial sector respectively, in the Philippines and Australia.

'€œWe plan to sell automotive lubes in the Philippines and lubes for the industrial sector in Australia. We'€™re reviewing the potential of the Philippines. We hope that Australia can be accessed easier as we'€™ve already sold automotive lubes in Australian market,'€ he said.

The vice president of Pertamina Lubricant Supriyanto Dwi Hutomo said he was also upbeat with the plan to export lubricants to more countries as he was confident in the quality of the product.

'€œOur product [lubricants] has been accepted in many developed countries such as Australia, Japan and Switzerland. It shows that our product is of excellent quality as they impose high quality standards before accepting lubricant products,'€ he said in his keynote speech.

Meanwhile Uday Jayaraman Kumar, director of PT Lamindo Inter Multikon (LIM), a subsidiary of India-based Adani Group, said that Pertamina had provided his company with quality lubricants at competitive prices since LIM began operations in Indonesia.

'€œPertamina has always met our demand for lubes for our mining equipment. Last year, we demanded 80 drums of lube per month worth between Rp 600 million (US$61,800) and Rp 700 million while this year our demand will be between 80 and 100 drums per month,'€ he said.

In tapping the global market, Pertamina is collaborating with local partners in the destination countries. Earlier last year for example, the company teamed up with Australia-based Harvest Time to enter the Western Australian market for automotive lubricants.

It has been selling its lubricants in Australia since 2009.

In addition to expanding its business to many more countries, Abdul said that Pertamina planned to
supply more lubricants for various industrial sectors.

'€œThe industrial sector contributed 55 percent of our total sales last year in which coal mining has been the backbone. We want to increase the contribution from other industrial sectors, such as manufacturing, plantations and marine, as coal mining has a gloomy look right now,'€ he said.

Pertamina sold 625,000 kiloliters of lubricants last year, of which around 122,549 was exported while the remainder was for the domestic market.

From its total lubricant sales, Pertamina earned Rp 10.2 trillion last year, up by 13.33 percent from Rp 9 trillion in 2011. (koi)