Why is there a shortage of lubricants?

Why is there a shortage of Lubricating Oil?

Because of the Corona pandemic, there is less demand worldwide for fuel for road traffic and especially paraffin for aviation. The demand for paraffin is 82% less than for Corona. In the refinery process a lot of paraffin is released and these large quantities cannot be stored so the refinery capacity is reduced. This means that other refinery products, including the raw materials for producing base oil for lubricants, are in short supply. This has led to a worldwide shortage of base oils.

Are there any other reasons why lubricant producers are supplying so poorly?

Refinery maintenance

Many crude oil producers have postponed their planned maintenance in 2020 because of the pandemic. They are now shutting down to carry out critical maintenance activities, further reducing global supply. Reduced demand for paraffin and fuel has caused many refineries to carry out maintenance activities, further reducing available capacity 

Several winter

In February, the Gulf Coast region of the United States was hit by unprecedentedly severe and cold winter weather. This caused shortages in many chemicals and raw materials needed for the production of lubricant additives. In addition, several major additive suppliers declared Force Majeure after their raw material suppliers invoked force majeure due to the extreme weather conditions. This affects additives and chemicals for all lubricant categories.

What does that mean for your lubricant orders?

While we automatically confirm your orders, we emphasise that these shortages unfortunately mean that we can't just deliver everything. The demand is greater than the supplies. We are currently faced with the fact that certain product lines are no longer available. Every day the situation changes for the worse. Therefore we cannot be ahead of everything.

When will lubricants be delivered normally again?

Unfortunately, we do not expect the situation to stabilise before the second half of the year. OilOnline expects this situation to last until October this year before we return to more normal delivery times.

Why is OlieOnline the right place for you?

We have warehouses and stocks in several countries. This gives us access to multiple channels and enables us to mean more for our customers. Moreover, we have several lubricant brands such as Castrol, Fuchs, Houghton, Mobil, Shell, Klüber, Q8 and Total. Through our knowledge and expertise, we can therefore see if your production does not have to come to a halt by offering an equivalent. Of course we try to help everyone, but our loyal customers come first.

Our brands have another advantage

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In addition to quality, there is another good reason to choose the "real" brands. The world famous brands not only have a good quality but also better access to base oils, all other "brands" are blenders/mixers have to wait what is available to them. In short, besides quality a good reason to select a brand from our range.

Read here why lubricants are becoming more expensive.