Chevron Completes Testing of New Marine Cylinder Oil meeting MAN ES’ Category II Spec

Chevron Marine Lubricants’ new Taro Ultra Advanced 40 has passed the Main NOL (No Objection Letter) Service and Confirmation field tests by MAN Energy Solutions, which allows the oil’s uninterrupted use in its Mk 9 and later engines.

Since the International Maritime organization (IMO) 0.5% sulphur cap came into effect on 1 January 2020, the engine designer has defined two performance standards for lube oils intended for use in their two-stroke engines. To deal with changing fuel variants and engine designs, MAN ES has introduced a new strategy to raise the performance level of cylinder oils by dividing them into two performance categories, Category I and Category II.                

Category I oils are for MAN ES Mk 8 and earlier engines, category II oils are higher performance for their Mk 9 and later engines.                

100BN and 140BN cylinder oils meeting Category II for use with HFO (Heavy Fuel Oil) are already available, but lower BN, specifically, 40BN cylinder oils for use with VLSFO (Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil) meeting Category II have proved more challenging and are taking longer to develop and commercialize.

But now Taro Ultra Advanced 40 has passed MAN ES’s two-stage Main NOL Service and Confirmation field tests to confirm its status as a Category II oil, offering lower sulfur engine operations from a low-BN oil.

Taro Ultra Advanced 40 was tested extensively on vessels with MAN 8G80ME-C9.2 in conjunction with shipowners including Greece’s Cape Shipping SA.

“We were operating our engines on 40BN cylinder oil and VLSFO, however, we had to run alternating with 100BN oil to keep our MAN G80ME-C9.2 engine clean. We have now operated for extended time, on Chevron’s new high-performance 40BN cylinder oil and have seen a significant improvement," said Elias Soulis, Technical Manager Cape Shipping SA. "We no longer have to alternate between the two products to have excellent looking engine cylinder conditions. Having a single product for all our operational conditions reduces greatly the complexity of the operations for our crew.”

Taro Ultra Advanced 40, is designed for use with a range of low and zero sulphur fuels including VLSFO, ULSFO, LNG and methanol. It will be available globally in the second half of 2022.

Clean piston - It is vital for cylinder oils that have Category II status to have excellent performance, centered on their cleaning ability. Photo courtesy Chevron Marine Lubricants