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tate-run oil and gas firm PT Pertamina revealed over the weekend that in January its lubricant exports jumped 77 percent compared to the same month last year following massive market expansion.

Exports hit 11,500 kiloliters, or 36 percent above target, in the first month of 2012. The company sold 6,500 kiloliters of lubricants in January 2011.

“Increased exports show that Pertamina’s lubricants have won foreign consumers’ hearts. Given the positive trend, we aim to boost the export performance while maintaining domination in the domestic market,” Pertamina spokesperson Mochamad Harun said in a press statement.

As widely reported earlier, over the past four years, Pertamina’s lubricants had penetrated markets in 20 countries around the globe.

Recently, the company teamed up with Australia-based Harvest Time to enter the West Australian market. Pertamina’s lubricants have been sold in East Australia since 2009.

The bulk of export sales, 95 percent, consisted of lubricants for automotive applications, while the remaining 5 percent was for industrial use.

In the domestic market, the firm’s sales were up by 7.4 percent from last year.

“With that record, we are optimistic that we can maintain our domination with market share of around 60 percent,” Harun reported.

The country’s market for lubricants reached 720,000 kiloliters last year and was predicted to grow by 2 percent and 3 percent annually.

Lubricant sales in Pertamina are handled by a business unit called Pertamina Lubricant. Pertamina is now in the process of making Pertamina Lubricant its subsidiary. The planned company is estimated to have total assets of Rp 1.5 trillion (US$163.34 million) and aims to hold an initial public offering two years after its establishment.

Pertamina’s lubricants have been sold in countries including Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, China, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan and Timor Leste.

The company sold a total of 458,000 kiloliters of lubricants in the domestic and global markets in 2010. This year, sales are estimated to reach 546,000 kiloliters. Last year, exports touched 116,797 kiloliters.

Pertamina Lubricant recorded total revenue of Rp 9 trillion and profit of Rp 1.7 trillion last year. This year, it forecasts that its revenue and profit will grow by 13.33 percent to Rp 10.2 trillion and by 17.65 percent to Rp 2 trillion, respectively.

Pertamina has set aside Rp 8 trillion for capital expenditure in 2012. Of that amount, Rp 1 trillion will be allocated for overseas market expansion.

The state company currently operates three lubricant blending plants in Jakarta; Cilacap, Central Java, and Surabaya, with a total annual capacity of 560,000 kiloliters.

To improve production capacity and support expansion plans, the firm has announced that it planned to set up a lubricant plant in an Asian country with investments estimated to reach $35 million. Feasibility studies to materialize the plan are currently underway in Japan and China.