Interview with Ünal Soysal, Chairman of the Board of Petroyağ

Turkchem 08 Feb 2021 90 3 dk okuma

TURKCHEM

We conducted an enjoyable interview with Petroyağ's Board Chairman Ünal Soysal, discussing the company's areas of operation and R&D activities. Soysal also provided information about the actions the company took to keep pace during the pandemic period.

Could you introduce yourself to our readers and tell us about your professional background?

I was born in Ankara in 1957. I am a graduate of Gazi University's Department of Chemical Engineering. From April 1980, after working for 8 years in the Mineral Oils section at Petroleum Office, I joined Texaco following an offer to become Turkey Sales Manager from the American Texaco company. When Texaco left Turkey after 4 years, I decided to establish my own company. Petroyağ was founded in this manner in 1993.

What are your product ranges and which sectors do you serve?

Since the day I founded Petroyağ, my primary objective has been to serve Turkish industry, and in line with this goal, we focused on industrial oils that the industry requires. By initially importing white oils and expanding their application areas, we became both a pioneering and reliable company in these oils in Turkey. Oil is a very broad field, and as time goes on, both our oil varieties and the sectors we serve have increased. White oils, aluminum rolling oils, process oils, heat transfer oils, and compressor oils are the product groups that dominate our sector. Beyond this, we continue to create added value by working on diverse projects brought by our customers in our R&D center. At the same time, we provide consultant services for all lubricants and chemicals used in industrial production.

What is your approach to R&D? Could you tell us about the R&D activities you have conducted at your company?

R&D means a great deal to us. The fact that Petroyağ is already the third largest industrial oil supplier in Turkey and is the only 100% Turkish capital company among these three companies is primarily due to continuously carrying out R&D activities and being able to present innovative products to the market together with new application areas. In 2017, we became the first R&D Center approved by the Ministry of Industry in our sector. Our R&D center has 23 personnel, including 1 PhD graduate and 7 master's degree holders. We have ongoing work supported by TÜBİTAK and European Union projects. Through joint projects we wish to undertake in R&D, we want to utilize the Industry-University-Private Sector triangle as it is done abroad and make it more efficient. In recent years, as our activities have increased, I see that there are many diverse special projects studied in our universities, but if these projects are supported by industry and the private sector and transformed into commercial products, they will provide great added value to our country.

The entire world entered the pandemic period, and what did you do at your company in the face of this unexpected situation? How did you navigate through the pandemic?

We took action without delay. Together, we implemented the necessary measures one by one. To secure ourselves, we took the necessary steps. We grouped these under four main headings: Our Health, Our Safety, Our Unity and Our Security, Our Future... First, we informed all our customers and suppliers about the measures and practices we took, assuring them that we would not disrupt our supplies. We made the best financial planning and paid attention to our cash flow. We are a good family and our health comes first. We provided job security to all our employees and even added new team members during this period. The first two months greatly affected us, but thanks to the increase in our sales afterwards, we had a year in which we covered our losses. Despite all the measures taken, such as the production department working in shifts and half our personnel working from home, we managed all these changes very well as the entire Petroyağ team. Although we went through a difficult period, we knew how to overcome it, and now we are much more hopeful...

What does sustainability mean for your company? What measures have you taken while producing for a sustainable world?

The most important step in sustainability is innovation. For this, we have entered into a structure that prepares a sufficient budget by prioritizing R&D activities, and to this end, we have decided that our new projects continue in our newly established company and production areas. However, what we have emphasized until today: our service understanding – Speed – Safe and Ethical principles with our customers and employees and solution-focused approaches are the factors that enable us to be a sustainable company. We now also understand the importance of digitalization post-pandemic and know that we need to orient ourselves towards startups that will enable us to structure accordingly.