Face-to-Face: Praveen Nagpal

Shell Lubricants, the global leader in finished lubricants is one of the most diversified international energy company in India. It has the entire Lubricants end-to-end value chain in India, from conceptualization and development to production and distribution. In an interview with Jhumpa Mukherjee of Machinery Lubrication India, Mr Praveen Nagpal, Chief Technology Officer, Shell India, talks about tackling the COVID-19 situation and what it takes to operate in the region.

Mr Praveen Nagpal is responsible for establishing Shell's Technology Leadership through strong collaboration with OEMs, Customers and Industrial bodies working towards continually lowering the Total Cost of Ownership for customers while maintaining environmental sustainability. He has over 24 years’ experience working with heavy industry OEMs, Marine, Industrial and Automotive lubricants in various local and global roles like operation and maintenance, field services, technical services, research and development and special projects. In addition to product development, he has led the development of innovative customer-centric services like real-time oil condition monitoring through sensors and telematics, door-step industrial services.

1. What do you have to say about Lube Market in India?

India accounts for nearly 7% of global lubricant demand. While the overall lubricant demand growth in the country has slowed in the last couple of years, it remains one of the fastest growing finished lubricant markets in the world. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Indian lubricant market grew due to the presence of large industrial manufacturing sector comprising automotive and auto component manufacturing, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, tire and rubber, power generation, and mining, among others; a large and growing population; growing commercial and consumer vehicle population; and mounting transport infrastructure. The pace of growth in the Indian lubricant market before COVID-19 was moderate at around 2% to 2.5%. With the reduction in demand due to the pandemic, we anticipate that even in 2021, it may not attain the same levels as we saw last year in 2019. In the long run, the market should return to its normal growth rates, as the fundamental demand drivers are still in place. However, 2020 will see a contraction in demand.

2. According to you, how has COVID-19 impacted the lubricant industry? How Shell India is tackling the situation?

COVID-19 situation resulted in a severe reduction in industrial activities towards the end of March and April. At the same time, we had to ensure the non-disruption of supplies to essential industry customers, as our products support them in keeping their machines running. Over the last few months, I am happy to share that we have been able to fulfil supply promises to our customers. We were one of the first international oil companies to have our blending plant up and running even during this crisis. We managed to do so by ensuring absolute care of our staﬀ.

Care being one of the key pillars for us, we have reached out to more than 126,000 people with PPE kits, relief kits and meals.
In the lubricants business in particular, we worked with our distributors and a not-for-profit partner Vision Springs to help distribute relief kits to truckers and ambulance drivers, people who are stepping out on a daily basis so that we can stay safe at home and have access to essential services and healthcare.

Right at the beginning of the lockdown, we ensured that we used our mechanic engagement app to share all the relevant healthcare tips on the pandemic, to ensure everyone was familiar with the concept of social distancing, identifying the symptoms of the disease and the precautions to take, the helpline numbers to reach out to, among other things. In these extraordinary times, customer-centricity continues to drive all our eﬀorts. We have partnered with start-ups like Pitstop and Hoopy to deliver contactless doorstep services to car and bike owners across India; this will also generate huge employment opportunities for our mechanic community. Shell has innovated and delivered many solutions through a lot of diﬀerent platforms, like Shell remote sense - a technology for real-time oil condition monitoring, real wear headsets for virtual diagnostics, Shell LubeCoach Academy – an online training platform, Shell LubeOptimizer – doorstep fluid reliability services for industrial customers etc.

3. Tell about Shell's business in India and segments that you cater to.

Shell is an energy giant multinational and has been associated with India for more than seven decades. Royal Dutch Shell, the parent company of Shell India, is ranked third on the Fortune Global 500 list for 2019. Shell is one of the most diversified international energy companies in India with over 9,500 employees and presence across upstream, integrated gas, downstream, renewable energy with a retail presence across six states –Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Assam. It has the entire Lubricants end-to-end value chain in India, from conceptualization and development to production and distribution; serving 50000 consumers through a robust network of 200+ distributors across B2C and B2B lines of Sales. This includes a world-class lubricant oil blending plant that manages a large supply chain through a network of 4 Regional Distribution Centers and 8 warehouses. With customers at the centre of our oﬀering, Shell research and product development teams have developed a wide range of mineral and synthetic categories basis application demand and value for customers. We oﬀer a range of mineral and synthetic categories of lubricants catering to needs of varied automotive initial fills & aftermarket requirements and industrial applications including auto component and general manufacturing, power, metals, construction, mining, sugar, oil and gas.

4. Research & development plays an important role in any sector, more particularly in lubricants. Would you like to tell us about the R&D eﬀorts taken up at Shell?

Typically in a crisis, people look for technology or product innovation, but I think the needs of a consumer are very diﬀerent at the moment. We have been utilizing this time to connect virtually with all our customers to understand their business needs and priorities at this point of time and accordingly adjust our R&D programs to help all of us come out stronger after the lockdown. We are using the customer inputs to create solutions around fuel efficiency, lower emissions and cost optimization. Currently, with our staff unable to travel to customer locations, we wanted to ensure that we are able to provide maximum possible services remotely. After all, with the digital platforms available today, a lot of things are possible without people being physically present at a particular place. With this in mind, we rolled out Realwear headset technology, to enable virtual inspections by our experts, helping our customers optimize operations and prevent equipment breakdown. We have also made available the application of sensors for seamless monitoring of equipment to ensure that operating conditions are normal and to monitor equipment conditions and idle time among other parameters to provide useful insights to customers to optimize the cost of operations.

5. Most of the manufacturing companies are trying to incorporate Industry 4.0, what are your views on this front?

We are amidst the 4th Industrial Revolution, and technology is evolving faster than ever. There is no sector that will not benefit from adopting elements of Industry 4.0. Covid-19 itself has fast-tracked technology adoption across industries. Machine breakdowns and downtimes can cost millions to industries and a lack of access to consumers. Making a decision related to lubricants can be both challenging and cumbersome for a manufacturer. What if a manufacturer can leave everything related to lubricants to someone else and focus only on core operations? Shell Lubricants has enabled just this for manufacturers.

I see the future of lubricants management with integrated sensors applicable with multiple machine systems and enabled with machine learning algorithms which give the advantage of real-time monitoring resulting in optimizing machinery processes. It helps manufacturers prevent unplanned breakdown thereby improving the reliability of the machinery. Besides increasing reliability of the machine, customers can also ensure maximum utilization of lubricant’s residual life, thereby, reducing the overall total cost of ownership. To share one such example, Shell also oﬀers a unique platform called ‘LubeAnalyst – an oil condition monitoring service’ to its customers helping to ensure that the equipment and lubricants are in optimum working order by identifying potential oil or equipment failures before they become critical. We have a strong database of

25 million data points which help to understand the behaviour of machinery in a specific environmental condition and whether they need to optimize the machinery processes or the lubricant development processes. This service is designed to help save money and time on maintenance. To help customers with faster decision making, Shell has recently established two more labs one in Bangalore and another in Udaipur in addition to an existing one in Mumbai. The regional labs make the reports available within 24 Hrs. once the sample reaches the machine.

Besides this, Shell identified a problem of manual tracking of a rainbow of mining and construction equipment ﬂeets which was resulting into huge loss of operating hours translating into high Opex, fuel consumption, higher CO2 footprint and unable to maximize the capital. To solve this problem, Shell introduced an innovative “wireless telematics solution – MachineMax” which helps to track the machine’s operational hours and location 24/7.

Also, Shell in partnership with IBM has recently launched a “mining industry-specific technology platform – OREN” which will provide solutions for helping miners as well as their suppliers and customers. OREN is a go-to mining and industrials innovation platform for digital transformation at scale. It’ll oﬀer choice and ease of access to software, services, and digital solutions from the globe’s most innovative companies – a true digital solutions marketplace.

6. India is a market with strong growth opportunities. Increasing demand for lubricants is also forcing global majors to shift to local manufacturing instead of imports. Keeping in line with this trend how does Shell look at “Make in India” campaign?

Indeed, the India market has strong avenues for growth and it is a focus market for Shell. We have capabilities with the entire lubricants end-to-end value chain. We have our blending plant in Mumbai and State-of-the-art Technology Center in Bangalore. The lab is involved in R&D for the global requirement of lubricants and greases. In addition, we are working on many innovative projects to support our customers. Shell also has an active program Shell E4, for startups focused on a cleaner and sustainable energy solutions. The company is also working on solutions for energy storage systems and infrastructure for electric vehicles.

7. Our government is pushing for the growth of electric vehicles in the country. How is Shell preparing for this shift? And what will be the impact on the sales volume?

We are taking a broad-based approach to energy. We are one of the pioneers in gas-to-liquid (GTL) fuel as well as nature-based solutions. The advent of EVs will bring its own set of lubrication needs and at Shell, we have a deep technical understanding of the various points of friction that will require to be addressed.

Thermal fluids will be needed to cool electric motors, inverters, and motor windings, and to support battery thermal management. Specialized process oils will be needed to protect battery membranes, too. There will be greases to lubricate electric motor, wheel and steering bearings, and the transmission lubes for reduction gears and differentials. Plug-in hybrid vehicles will also require specific solutions when it comes to transmissions and engine oil. Electric vehicles require lower oil volumes, but also introduce higher power outputs, more compact designs, higher complexity, diﬀerent operating conditions, higher thermal stresses, and need to protect against wear at lower temperatures. Tere are also conductivity issues to consider when copper wires and ﬂuids mix. Not everything is going to be coated, and transmissions in electric vehicles will turn at higher rates, requiring improved controls against the foam.

8. What are the major product/service differentiators (technically / technologically) that Shell can be proud of as compared to other major players?

Specific to Shell lubricant solutions, we have innovative products like Shell Tellus S4 VE, a new gas-to-liquid based energy-efficient hydraulic oil which oﬀers up to 6 per cent productivity improvement, up to 5 per cent hydraulic energy efficiency and 27 per cent faster air release. Shell Omala S5 Wind – giving an oil life of 10 years for wind turbines. Shell Rimula R5 LE enabling low emissions and fuel economy up to 1.6 per cent and Shell Helix HX8 0W range, a fully synthetic oil formulated with Pure Plus Technology, a revolutionary process that delivers crystal clear base oil made from natural gas with virtually no impurities – making it 99.5 per cent pure. It boosts performance by minimizing friction among moving parts, oﬀers engine protection, fuel economy with a reduction in emissions. We are proud to be setting benchmarks for quality and technological innovation and are committed to providing bespoke solutions to our consumers.

9. How was the previous year for Shell and what are the goals for the next year? What are the new initiatives and developments?

We are in midst of a very dynamic situation. As consumer behaviour and needs are changing, our goals are also evolving with consumer centricity in the centre. We’ll continue to focus on three key pillars – 1. Care for our people, customers, stakeholders, and communities we operate in, 2. Ensuring business continuity for our customers and 3. Managing cash and liquidity for sustainable business on an ongoing basis. In addition, we’ll continue to focus on providing technologically sound products and services catering to customers varied needs.