The Gazprom Neft filling station has become the official fuel supplier to the 2018 international “Silk Road” rally, with the company supplying more than 150,000 litres of its “Opti” motor fuel in refuelling the competition and support vehicles of participating teams.
The first phase of the “Silk Road” rally-raid marathon starts on 20 July 2018 in Astrakhan and ends on 27 July with the grand finish in Moscow’s Red Square, with participants negotiating seven legs, including special high-speed stages running to a total 3,488 kilometres. Gazprom Neft tankers will be refuelling Silk Road cars directly from bivouacs during service stops throughout the entire route, with the tankers equipped with mobile fuel pumps to ensure timely and accurate refuelling, and fuel quality and integrity controlled by multiple digital sensors.
Silk Way Rally Director Vladimir Chagin commented: “One of the key factors in a successful race is high quality fuel. And if that race is a rally, then the questions of how, where and what to refuel with, particularly on the remote sections of the route, are always front of mind.”
A view underlined by Gazprom Neft Regional Sales Director Alexander Krylov. “We don’t just test our fuels in labs, but under the extreme conditions of closed-circuit races and rallies. ‘Opti’ diesel fuel successfully passed testing on the Silk Road Rally legs last year, and this time all of the cars in the rally will be refuelled using our own-brand gasolines and diesel fuels. That sort of confidence on the part of the organisers and drivers is the best possible endorsement of the fuels’ high quality and superior performance, which is now available to every motorist throughout the Gazprom Neft filling station network.”
The Silk Way Rally is an international off-road “rally-raid” race, held since 2009 in Russia and, in certain years, the countries of Central Asia and China, with the world’s leading racing drivers and sports teams taking part. The competition covers two categories — off-road vehicles, and trucks.
The Gazpromneft filling station network totals approximately 1,400 filling stations throughout Russia and the CIS. The network’s extensive geographic range, coupled with the highly advantageous location of the company’s Omsk, Moscow and Yaroslavl refineries, continue to ensure Gazprom Neft’s leading position in the wholesale and retail markets of western Siberia and central Russia.
“Opti” motor fuel contains cutting-edge new-generation high-technology components which, under regular usage, clean carbon and other deposits from the fuel injection system. This new fuel is fully compliant with Euro-5 environmental standards and is suitable for use on domestic and internationally produced passenger and heavy goods vehicles.
