The Chief Executive Officer of Oilden Energies, Oluwatoni Oladiran, has warned against the use of palm oil as a base oil for the production of lubricants.
Oladiran, who lamented the rate of adulterated engine oils in the market, expressed concerns that some adulterators had gone to the extent of using edible palm oil to produce lubricants, saying this would damage the engine.
In an interview with select journalists recently, Oladiran, whose company specialises in the production of engine oil, argued that palm oil cannot maintain its position as it changes with the weather.
“If you go to the market and see any product labelled Oilden that is not my product because I supply directly to the end users.
“It is even so bad now that some adulterators use palm oil as a major addictive for lubricant production. That is why there seem to be rampant cases of damaged engines and transmissions. If you use contaminated fuel, the engine could still be fixed, but once the engine comes in contact with substandard lubricant, that is the end of that engine,” Oladiran stated.
Oladiran explained that the use of palm oil cannot be an innovation for the production of lubes.
“I do not advise in any way that palm oil should ever be used to produce lubricants. Base oils are of different types to produce different lubricants: 15W40, 5W30 for cars, SAE40 for industrial machines and others.
“The extract you can get from palm oil is hydraulics, which is SM150. They fry it to the thinnest level and when they do that, it gives them what they want at that moment, but when a little breeze blows on it, it sticks back together and that defeats the purpose.
“We all know that no matter how long you fry palm oil, just keep it under cold weather, it thickens up together. That is what differentiates it from base oil,” he asserted.
According to Oladiran, base oil will never turn that way under any weather condition.
“Palm oil messes up production. You won’t know how bad it is until it damages your machine. You can use the palm oil-based lubricant on your small generators but don’t try it with heavy-duty machines. I don’t think palm oil should ever be a substitute for base oil because it will keep spoiling the machines. Let palm oil do the cooking for us,” he advised.
The Oilden Energies boss disclosed that base oil, which is a major component for lubricants, was being imported, lamenting how difficult it had been in the face of foreign exchange fluctuation.
Unless the local refineries become operational, Oladiran said Nigeria would continue to depend heavily on importation of base oil.
He reasoned that Nigeria must refine its crude oil locally to stop the importation of refined products like petrol.
“Nigeria should, as a matter of urgency, begin to add value to its crude oil by refining it, marketing it and exporting it to the international market. By so doing, we would have succeeded in boosting the local economy through massive job creation, which subsequently boosts the economy,” he added.
