Lubricant market tends to grow with rise in GDP

Rupinder Paintal, General Manager, Industrial, ExxonMobil Lubricants ExxonMobil is an integrated oil company having upstream, downstream and chemical businesses. There is also a research and engineering company that supports the company with all the technologies that it brings to the market. The upstream segment is focused on exploration, development and production work for crude oil, natural gas and other energy products. In the downstream business, the company refines and distributes products derived from crude oil and other feedstocks. Fuels marketing, also a part of this, includes the company's global network of manufacturing plants, transportation systems, and distribution centres that provide fuels, lubricants, and other high-value products to customers. Rupinder Paintal, General Manager, Industrial, ExxonMobil Lubricants, shares his views on new products and his outlook towards the energy sector. Lubricants help end customers to achieve efficiency and save energy. Is there something more in terms of 'energy efficiency' that can be achieved through better products or research and development? At ExxonMobil, our ultimate goal is to strive and improve our customers' competitiveness by facilitating enhanced and improved productivity and efficiency through our commitment to be the technology leader with the highest level of application expertise. As a company, we place enormous emphasis on ongoing investment in research and development, working side-by-side with the world's leading OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to develop the most effective products and maintenance solutions. What is ExxonMobil's pipeline of products for the Indian market, especially for the oil and gas market? The Mobil industrial lubricants' product portfolio in India is well positioned to support the economic and industrial growth taking place in the country. We have an excellent balanced portfolio of state-of-the-art, well proved, high-performance lubricants that can cater to the needs of many industrial market sectors including plastics, power generation, general manufacturing, metal, food and beverage processing, pulp and paper, cement, construction and mining all backed by ExxonMobil's unmatched industry expertise. For the oil and gas sector, we offer: Mobil SHC 600, the parent product with number of other products under it. Mobil SHC Gear these are synthetic high performance gear oil. Mobil SHC 500 Series these are synthetic hydraulic fluid. Mobil DT 10 Excel these are premium hydraulic fluid. Mobil SHC Rarus 800 these are primary synthetic compressor fluid. Other than these the top three greases are: Mobil SHC PM, Mobil Greases, Mobilith SHC. All these products are available in India. What is the future growth prospect in India in terms of lubricants and greases. The industrial lubricant market tends to grow with the rise of the GDP. If we go by the public figure given by the Government, may be 6 per cent to 7 per cent per annum, that's what we are expecting to see through all our businesses here. Could you please share your thoughts on energy outlook, both globally and in India? The synopsis of this outlook is that the demand for energy will rise through 2040 as global economic output doubles and prosperity expands across the world where the population will grow to nearly 9 billion people. The outlook, which was extended to 2040 for the first time, projects that global energy demand in 2040 will be about 30 per cent higher than it was in 2010, led by growth in developing regions such as China, India, Africa and other emerging economies. It states that while oil will remain the most widely used fuel, overall energy demand will be reshaped by a continued shift toward less-carbon-intensive energy sources such as natural gas as well as steep improvements in energy efficiency in areas like transportation, where the expanded use of hybrid vehicles will help push average new-car fuel economy to nearly 50 miles per gallon by 2040. Coming to India, in the Indian energy space, 65 per cent is contributed by thermal and the remaining 30 per cent by hydro and the remaining 5 per cent by nuclear. This spectrum is not going to change, it will remain constant. Fossil fuels are here to stay; the portfolio of energy is not going to change. But will grow in the same percentage. The Outlook for Energy report is published annually and highlights on what's going to happen from the year 2005 till 2040. (Communication by the management of the company)