In the past decade the lubricants market has undergone profound changes. Technical, ecological, and economic requirements towards lubricants have increased. In traditional markets - e.g. the Federal Republic of Germany - the increased efficiency of lubricants leads to declining sales figures and this in turn to stiffer competition on these markets. In the light of shortened product life cycles accompanied by rising R&D costs, globalisation via individual growth as well as via national and international mergers seems to be the only feasible way for lubricants producers to maintain their competitiveness. However, in the light of their stronger global orientation, companies require a greater number of strategic tools. Assessing the global potential for lubricants is one of the core tasks that companies have to tackle and which will enable them to position their products strategically on the international market. The goal of the project is thus to create sales forecasts for various lubricants in selected countries by applying an econometric model. When using panel econometric approaches we can determine market potential via analogical inference for countries about whose lubricants sales abroad we have only scarce information.