Rerefiner Safety-Kleen outlined plans to continue expanding its blending capabilities, including a blending plant at a third rerefinery it intends to open in the Gulf Coast by fiscal year 2015, in a recent initial public offering of up to $400 million in common stock. Safety-Kleen filed its registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the proposed IPO on Aug. 14. The company wont receive any proceeds from the sale. Safety-Kleen spokesman John Kyte said the compa...

Niagara Lubricants hopes to break ground this fall on a new facility in Buffalo, N.Y., to replace its factory that burned down in July 2011. A four-alarm fire devastated Niagara Lubricants factory on July 13, 2011. The 40,000 square foot building contained various products, including additives, base oils, greases and waxes. The company has continued to operate from leased space. Were going to have a brand new, 60,000 square foot, state-of-the-art manufacturing, compounding and grease making fa...

August heralded a new era of pollution control in North American waters with major implications for marine lubricants and bunker fuels. Ships operating within 200 miles of the continent-the new North American Emission Control Area-must now meet stringent limits for fuel sulfur content. Ships entering coastal North American waters are now required to switch to fuel containing no more than 1 percent sulfur. By 2015, the limit will fall to 0.1 percent. Outside established Emission Control Areas...

MOSCOW – Global base oil demand will see significant regional variations in type and volumes consumed, marked by growth of API Group II and Group III base oils and decline of Group I base oil by 2030, according to a presentation at the WRA Base Oils and Lubricants in Russia and the CIS conference. Overall demand is expected to reach 43 million tons by 2030, up from 35 million tons in 2010, according to Purvin & Gertz consultancy. This growth will be followed by a competition among di...

Prista Oil Group of Bulgaria and Uznefteprodukt of Uzbekistan recently agreed to a joint venture for processing industrial waste lubes into base oil, the Uzbek oil major said on Monday. Construction of the 43,000 tons per year base oil rerefinery has already begun, Rustam Sobirhonovich, Uznefteprodukts chief engineer, told Lube Report. We expect the plant to be operational in the summer of 2013. The $16 million (U.S.) joint venture comprises two companies that will operate in the Angren indus...

Japanese petroleum giant JX Nippon Oil and Energy Corporation continues to look to get back at full capacity after a devastating Aug. 6 fire that knocked out the number two vacuum distillation unit at its Mizushima A refinery in Okayama prefecture. Initially, there was concern fire might affect the refinerys ability to produce base oil used in finished lubricants due to the damage caused to the vacuum distillation unit. During the fire, the vacuum distillation unit – which makes basic fe...

It has been another week of paltry exports from the United States, and ships are now ballasting away as forecast. European markets have been fractionally quieter while Asian markets continue to perform well amid reasonable levels of demand. U.S. Gulf of Mexico The issue about the cost of light sulphur fuel oil in the United States has been a major concern to ship owners, and the added cost, combined with poor levels of demand mean that several owners have decided to cut their losses and ballast...