Simon Johns

SIMON@LUBESNGREASES.COM

Managing Editor InSites - Simon Johns is the managing editor of Lubes'n'Greases’ InSites. He joined the company in September 2017, bringing a decade of publishing experience, most of which was spent heading an upstream-focused publication covering global oil and gas markets. Simon hails from the south of England but currently lives in Istanbul, where in his spare time he plays music and hosts a weekly radio program with his son.

Recent Articles

Briefly Noted

Briefly Noted

Caltex Lubricants appointed Santy Trading as its official distributor in Bahrain, expanding access to Chevron lubricant …

BP Castrol Stake Sale Accelerates $20bn Divestment Drive

BP Castrol Stake Sale Accelerates $20bn Divestment Drive

BP agreed to sell a 65% stake in its Castrol lubricants division to U.S. infrastructure investor Stonepeak, in a deal t …

UK Government Bankrolls INEOS Grangemouth Investment

UK Government Bankrolls INEOS Grangemouth Investment

INEOS said it will move forward with a £150 million investment at its Grangemouth petrochemical complex in Scotland, s …

EU Automotive Package Signals Shift Toward Flexible Decarbonization

EU Automotive Package Signals Shift Toward Flexible Decarbonization

The European Commission published its automotive package, outlining initial measures aimed at aligning the bloc’s dec …

UK Slaps Anti-Dumping Tax on Lubes from Lithuania and UAE

UK Slaps Anti-Dumping Tax on Lubes from Lithuania and UAE

Almost 18 months after initiating an investigation, the United Kingdom’s Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) issued its …

New Feedstock Agreement Secures Luberef Group I Output

New Feedstock Agreement Secures Luberef Group I Output

A new feedstock agreement with state-owned Saudi Aramco ensures operations at Luberef’s API Group I base oil unit in …

Aster Pumps Cash into Pulau Bukom  

Aster Pumps Cash into Pulau Bukom  

Aster Chemicals and Energy will fork out U.S.$155 million to upgrade its refinery on Pulau Bukom in Singapore, the compa …

Briefly Noted

Briefly Noted

Eneos Hastens Cooling Fluid DevelopmentEneos Holdings is using NVIDIA’s Alchemi platform to speed development of imme …

GEIR Presses EU for Regulatory Support

GEIR Presses EU for Regulatory Support

Representatives of Europe’s waste oil rerefining industry called on the European Union to help grow the industry with …

Briefly Noted

Briefly Noted

Afton Taps SSKTama to be Indonesia DistributorAfton Chemical named PT Sari Sarana Kimiatama (SSKTama) as its distributo …

Vertex Starts Group III Rerefinery in Mobile

Vertex Starts Group III Rerefinery in Mobile

Vertex Energy said its Mobile, Alabama hydrocracker is now producing VTX-R4, a 4-centistoke API Group III rerefined bas …

December 2025 Base Oil Report Video

December 2025 Base Oil Report Video

As the end of the year approaches, many base oil industry participants are likely to evaluate the circumstances that sha …

Briefly Noted

Briefly Noted

Lopal prepared to ship its first batch of lubricants to Zambia, marking its initial order for Sumec Hardware & To …

New Group III Plant in Shandong

New Group III Plant in Shandong

Yitai Bochen Chemical Technology Co. began construction this month on a new API Group III base oil plant in Zibo, Shand …

Career Moves

Career Moves

Phillips 66 announced Glenn Tilton and Marna Whittington intend to retire and will not stand for re-election to the boa …

Stonepeak Emerges as a New Castrol Suitor

Stonepeak Emerges as a New Castrol Suitor

BP is in advanced discussions with Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners, an investment firm based in New York, to sell its …

Podcast 34: Kline’s Long-term View on Immersion Fluids

Podcast 34: Kline’s Long-term View on Immersion Fluids

The immersion cooling fluid market is small but is garnering lots of attention, not least from industry consultancy Kli …

R&D Spend and Market Softness Dent NewMarket Earnings

R&D Spend and Market Softness Dent NewMarket Earnings

NewMarket Corporation’s quarterly net income for its petroleum additives segment dropped to $649.1 million from $663. …