Volume 16 Issue 31

SSY Base Oil Shipping Report

The U.S. market is a touch slower, but the situation is not as dramatic as some make it out to be. Europe is slow but steady and that can probably be said of Asia, too. U.S. Gulf On the face of it, there have been so many cargoes quoted to the Far East this week that any remaining space in August should have been easily covered. But it has not, which suggests that much of the enquiry is tentative. Traders have been advised that freight rates are falling and are checking to see by how much, and e...

API Lifts Provisional Licensing

The American Petroleum Institute will cease its provisional licensing of ILSAC GF-5 and API SN, SM, SL and SJ passenger car motor oil categories after receiving confirmation yesterday from ASTM International that test labs can once again run the Sequence VIII test. ASTMs Sequence VIII Surveillance Panel sent a letter notifying Kevin Ferrick, API senior manager for engine oil licensing and certification, that it obtained satisfactory results from the connecting rod bearings developed for use in t...

Gazprom Eyes Omsk Upgrade

Gazprom Neft announced last week that it will begin a major revamp of its refinery in Omsk, Russia – a project that will provide feedstock for a long-discussed upgrade of the refinerys base oil plant. The Russian energy major did not provide a timeline for its work, but an industry research institute predicts the Omsk plant will produce API Group II and III base stocks by 2020. The revamp is designed to raise the quality of products made by the refinery. Gazprom said it will begin with sit...

Fuchs Buys Synlubes Maker Ultrachem

Fuchs Petrolub SE agreed to acquire Delaware-based Ultrachem, which produces and markets specialty synthetic lubricants for the compressor original equipment manufacturer and industrial maintenance markets. Terms were not disclosed, and the deal is expected to close by the fourth quarter. Ultrachem will continue to operate out of its New Castle, Delaware location, where it employs 25 people and has a 55,000 square-foot production facility. Established in 1965, the company is one of the oldest sy...

Q2 Earnings Round-up

Afton Chemical and Milacrons Industrial Fluids segment reported increased profits, rerefiner Heritage-Crystal Cleans oil business posted lower sales, profits were down for Chemturas Industrial Performance Products segment, and Quaker Chemicals net income was unchanged, compared to the year-ago quarter. For the first half of this year, Fuchs earnings after tax were up compared to a year earlier. Afton Chemical NewMarket Corp.s Afton Chemical petroleum additives segment reported operating profit o...

Saudi Blender Plans Blending Plant

Saudi lube supplier Gulf Start Factory Co. for Petroleum Industries signed a deal to build a blending plant in the industrial zone of King Abdullah Economic City, a development under construction 100 kilometers north of Jeddah. Jeddah-based Gulf Start signed a contract with KAEC last week, according to a statement on the latters website, for a 15,677 square meter site in the megaprojects Industrial Valley. Cost and a timeline of the plant werent disclosed, nor was a production capacity figure. G...

Briefly Noted

Russias Gazpromneft-Lubricants recently opened its first G-Energy Service branded fast lube station in Hungary. Sonneborn LLC, supplier of white oils, process oils and various lubricants and specialty chemicals, named Jon Giberson vice president and general manager of its Americas division. American lube supplier Nanotech Industrial Solutions appointed Aponte & Asociados SRL as authorized distributor of its nano lubricants in the Dominican Republic.

Correction

The July 6 article, Lukoils Lubes Slumped in 2015, listed incorrect 2015 and 2014 base oil and lubricant production volumes. In 2015, Lukoil produced 386,000 tons of base oils, down 28.7 percent from 541,000 tons in 2014, and 543,000 tons of finished lubricants, down 1.8 percent from 553,000 tons in 2014.