Volume 16 Issue 51

SSY Base Oil Shipping Report

December space is tight in Asian markets. There is finally more yearend activity in the Europe and the United States, but neither is wildly busy as in previous years. U.S. Gulf Charterers seem resigned to the fact that there is virtually no space left into Asia for December, and apart from a few who are trying very large cargoes of methanol, ethylene dichloride and ethanol, the majority of requirements have slipped back into January. There is a significant number of enquiries, but at this stage ...

GF-6 Faces Two-year Lag

Many attending the Auto-Oil Advisory Panel meeting earlier this month in Orlando, Florida, were braced for unpleasant news, but the reality was still sobering: The panel, which is managing the development and introduction of the ILSAC GF-6 passenger car engine oil upgrade, heard that it may take until May 2019 to get the products to market. The original target for GF-6 was to have been January 2017, but the demands of concurrently developing a new heavy-duty engine oil category–API CK-4 an...

Chevron Invests in Novvi

Chevron made an equity investment into Novvi LLC – a joint venture of Amyris Inc., Cosan S.A. and American Refining Group – to gain access to biobased base oils. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The Novvi joint venture was formed in 2011 by Emeryville, California-based Amyris Inc., a U.S. developer of renewable chemicals technology, and Brazilian sugar company Cosan S.A. The purpose of the joint venture was to use Amyris technology to turn sugar provided by Cosan into hig...

Afton to Acquire Mexican Additives Firm

Afton Chemical Corp. entered into a contract to acquire Mexico City-based lubricant additive manufacturer and distributor Aditivos Mexicanos, S.A. Announced Monday, the purchase agreement is priced at roughly $182.5 million and will be finalized within the first half of 2017. Before the agreement can be finalized, however, it must go through customary closing processes, such as being approved by the Mexican Federal Economic Competition Commission. Like Afton, Aditivos Mexicanos is in the chemica...

Economic Challenges Slow Eastern Europe

MOSCOW – Eastern Europes lubricant demand stalled during the past few years due to adverse economic conditions, according to an industry insider. In 2015, Eastern Europe accounted for 45 percent of Europes 6.7 million tons of finished lubricants demand, said Christian Ohligmacher, vice president for Central and Eastern Europe for Mannheim, Germany-based lube maker Fuchs. Western Europe accounted for the remaining 55 percent. In 2007, Europes total lubricants demand reached 8.4 million, wit...

API to Pull Plug on Energy Conserving Dec. 30

The American Petroleum Institute will discontinue licensing the use of the Energy Conserving designation with its API SL and API SM gasoline engine oil categories effective Dec. 30. Any currently licensed API SL Energy Conserving or SM Energy Conserving products will remain licensed until that date. At that time, the license will be canceled, and no oil marketer will be permitted to show the Energy Conserving designation on labels or in any marketing medium. For more information read Lube Reports March 16 article, API Pulls Plug on Energy Conserving.

Briefly Noted

Three new reactors for ExxonMobils new hydrocracker arrived at its Rotterdam, Netherlands, refinery site last week. The hydrocracker represents an investment of more than $1 billion, and the company plans to produce API Group II base stocks in Europe for the first time, starting in 2018. Pilot Chemical Co. named Derek Houck chief financial officer effective Jan. 3. Current CFO David Waizmann will assume the title of business director, overseeing the companys marketing, new product development, sales, analysis and Pilot and Mason product lines.