Sales of Gazprom Neft’s innovative bitumen products up 37% in 1H 2019

Moscow, August 16 - Neftegaz.RU. Gazpromneft-Bitumen Materials achieved sales of more than 100 000 tonnes of high-tech modified bitumen and bitumen-derivative products in 1H 2019, with sales of premium products up 37% year-on-year.

Total sales of bitumen materials reached more than 1 million tonnes in the 1st 6 months of 2019, with the company’s geographic coverage increasing to now cover 85 of Russia’s regions. International sales of Gazpromneft-Bitumen Materials’ products now include 56 countries in Europe, South America, Africa and Asia.

As part of its strategy for developing its bitumens business Gazprom Neft continues to strengthen cooperation with Russia’s regions, entering into agreements with local governments in the Kursk, Kurgan, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk and Smolensk Oblasts in the 1st half of this year.

These partnerships involve developing specially formulated bitumen binders in line with the specific climatic conditions and traffic loads in each region - to which end, actual highways usage conditions, including traffic volumes and the subsequent impact on road surfaces, are modelled using the unique high-tech equipment at Gazprom Neft’s Science and Technology Centre in Ryazan.

Dmitry Orlov, CEO of Gazpromneft-Bitumen Materials, commented: “Increasing demand for high-tech bitumen materials is directly related to the active development of transport infrastructure and the construction of new road facilities in Russia. Added to which, the trend towards further growth in the modified bitumens and bitumen derivatives sectors points to the roadbuilding industry focusing increasingly on more high-quality, durable materials, able to increase roads’ serviceable lifecycles exponentially.”