The Roseland plant is the company’s main production site, and includes blending, storage and packaging facilities. Smitty’s also operates plants in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Hammond, Indiana, and Jasper, Texas. Market sources said that these units would likely increase production to make up for part of the lost output at Roseland, or Smitty’s may choose to blend at other toll blenders’ facilities.

Nevertheless, Smitty’s customers braced for potential supply disruptions, with some looking for alternative supply sources. “It seems like some of Smitty’s customers are scrambling to secure lubricants elsewhere,” a market source commented. “The business will fill in the holes. It may be a bit disruptive short term, but the industry will quickly cover the gaps,” another source concurred. Others said that base oil demand would likely shift between players, and the incident might not have much of an effect on pricing. It may be some time before the full impact of the disaster is determined.

According to Smitty’s website, the Roseland plant employs approximately 450 people and houses bottle injection molding machines, automated filling production lines, 8.7 million gallons of bulk storage tanks on site, a grease manufacturing plant, lab and testing facilities, loading facilities for railcars, tankers and trucks for worldwide distribution of bulk and packaged oils, chemicals, transmission fluids, antifreeze and related products. The company offers PCMO, HDMO and industrial lubricants and does repackaging for Shell, Pennzoil, Castrol, Quaker State, Chevron and Texaco.

Meanwhile, business proceeded as usual for other industry participants, with activity expected to slow down over the Labor Day holiday weekend on Sept. 1, which also marks the end of the summer driving season when lubricant and fuel consumption in the U.S. typically starts to decline.

Some market participants were keeping extra base oil stocks in case of weather disruptions during the hurricane season, but were anticipated to start releasing the extra volumes into the market near the end of the third quarter. These actions were expected to exert downward pressure on pricing.

Lubricant manufacturers have been more conservative as to how much extra product to hold as lubricant demand has been sluggish for most of the year and blenders have had difficulties transferring increasing production costs down the supply chain given ongoing competition among suppliers. Some manufacturers also worried about the impact new tariffs may have on imported inputs.

The 90-day pause on additional tariffs on Chinese imports has offered a bit of a reprieve, but other tariffs were still in place, such as a minimum 30% duty on Chinese goods and a 50% import tax on products made from foreign steel and aluminum. The average effective U.S. tariff rate soared to 18.6% in early August, from 2.5% when U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January, according to an article in The New York Times.

Base oil posted prices were stable and have shown no adjustments since May, but spot export indications for some grades have slipped as suppliers were hoping to entice buyers. Domestic business was generally holding up well, but activity in other regions such as Asia has weakened. Supply and demand factors were the main determinant of prices, while crude oil and feedstock values have been relegated to a second place.

Crude oil prices have been fairly steady over the past few weeks, trading within a narrow range, but they dipped on Wednesday as markets weighed the potential impact of steep U.S. tariffs on Indian imports, and of current levies on automobiles and auto parts that may affect car prices in the U.S., dampening sales.

Group I

The API Group I segment was described as generally balanced, with some grades still showing signs of tight fundamentals on the heels of recent plant turnarounds. Buyers appear able to source as much product as needed. “Supply was a little challenged after our supplier’s turnaround, but we can lift at will without any constraints, even if we are above forecast,” a consumer said.

The heavy grades and bright stock were the least available grades, and this offered support to domestic pricing, but export prices have come under pressure because of lower bids from Mexican and South American buyers. In any case, a couple of U.S. suppliers were only able to offer flexibag-sized cargoes as their inventories were not high. A combined Group I and Group II base oils cargo was under discussion for shipment to Nigeria.

There was still steady export activity into Mexico, but buyers who are able to delay purchases were doing so in hopes of securing cargoes when U.S. suppliers start to destock once the hurricane season comes to an end.

Improved production levels in Brazil and reduced domestic prices for September has dampened interest in U.S. spot supplies of Group I grades, particularly as consumers can opt to replace Group I cuts with Group II grades in some applications given competitive pricing.

Group II

With most Group II plants running at full rates and demand starting to decline, this segment was expected to see oversupply conditions in the coming months. For the time being, most suppliers were keeping additional inventories to cover potential output disruptions during the peak hurricane months of August and September.

Motiva was heard to have limited extra availability following a turnaround a couple of months ago, and the Excel Paralubes unit in Louisiana was still running at reduced rates. The latter plant was expected to increase output following a scheduled turnaround and catalyst change in October. Rerefined grades had also been strained because of recent maintenance at a rerefining unit, but growing availability was starting to exert pressure on prices for rerefined grades.

The extra barrels that are kept during the hurricane season along the U.S. Gulf were expected to be released in the last quarter, and many of these Group II volumes find their way to overseas markets such as India. Demand in India was anticipated to pick up once the monsoon season is over in September. There have already been offers made to Indian buyers, but buying interest remained lukewarm. There have also been offers of Group II spot supplies to the West Coast of South America, but prices have edged down, and some buyers were not eager to jump at the first offer they received, preferring to hold out for even lower prices.

Additionally, Group II availability in Asia has grown following the completion of plant turnarounds, with Asian suppliers adjusting down spot prices for some Group II grades in order to capture fresh business opportunities.

Group III

The Group III segment appears well supplied, and a majority of current requirements were being fulfilled through imports and domestic base stocks. There had been rumors of production hiccups at a domestic Group III facility, but it appears that most plants were running well, with the exception of

Excel Paralubes that has experienced Group III issues since early in the year and only produces limited volumes for the company’s own internal consumption. The company does not comment on the status of its operations.

ExxonMobil has also announced that the company would increase the production of Group III grades at its Baytown, Texas, refinery to meet the growing demand for these base stocks in North America, although the expanded capacity was not expected to come on stream until 2028 (For further details, please see the article in this week’s issue of Lube Report Global).

Availability was deemed plentiful for imports from Canada, Asia and the Middle East after a fairly busy turnaround schedule in the previous months and some transportation and logistics issues in the Middle East back in June, with buyers finding enough products to cover contract requirements and able to take additional volumes if needed.

Lubricant manufacturers were cautious in terms of how much product to purchase as they wanted to avoid the risk of securing cargoes now that may be offered at lower prices later as additional shipments were expected to arrive over the next few weeks. Additional Group III supplies may become available given the Smitty’s Supply plant shutdown following the explosion and fire mentioned above.

Naphthenics

Naphthenic base oil prices were stable. Crude oil prices have shown little fluctuation over the last several weeks, and this allowed refiners to maintain full operating rates and steady base oil output. Producers said that crude oil values would have to fall by a significant amount to prompt them to consider base oil price adjustments.

The light pale oil grades continued to be described as tighter than the heavy cuts given healthier demand from downstream segments, but spot availability of all grades was expected to become more limited as Ergon was building inventories ahead of a scheduled six-week turnaround at its naphthenic base oils plant in Vicksburg, Mississippi, beginning Sept. 1. The producer plans to continue meeting demand from current ratable customers during the shutdown.

Crude Oil

Crude oil futures steadied on Wednesday following a decline in the previous session, with analysts expressing concern about the new U.S. tariffs on India, the world’s third-largest crude consumer. President Trump had threatened to impose the 50% tariffs as of Aug. 27 as a consequence of India’s purchases of Russian oil, and while Indian refiners initially scaled back their Russian crude purchases, there were reports last week that Indian state-owned refineries have resumed buying Russian supplies for September and October due to economic factors.

While the Russia-Ukraine conflict had been dominating discussions in recent weeks, drone strikes on Russian energy facilities during the week seemed to have had minimal impact on oil prices.

• West Texas Intermediate October 2025 futures settled on the Nymex at $63.25 per barrel on Aug. 26, up from $61.77/bbl on Aug. 19.
• Brent futures Oct 2025 delivery on ICE: $67.01/bbl on Aug. 26, up from $66.60/bbl on Aug. 19.
• Louisiana Light Sweet crude wholesale spot prices were hovering at $66.93/bbl on Aug. 25, up from $66.26/bbl on Aug. 18, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Diesel

Low-sulfur diesel wholesale, Aug. 25 (Aug. 18), EIA
New York Harbor: $2.40 per gallon ($2.30/gal)
Gulf Coast: $2.27/gal ($2.17/gal)
Los Angeles: $2.45/gal ($2.28/gal)

Gabriela Wheeler can be reached directly at gabriela@LubesnGreases.com

LNG Publishing Co. Inc./Lubes’n’Greases shall not be liable for commercial decisions based on the contents of this report.

Posted Paraffinic Base Oil Prices

August 27, 2025

(Prices are FOB basis, in U.S. dollars per gallon and U.S. dollars per metric ton).

Archived base oil price reports can be found through this link: https://www.lubesngreases.com/category/base-stocks/other/base-oil-pricing-report/

Historic and current base oil pricing data are available for purchase in Excel format.

*ExxonMobil prices obtained indirectly.
**Rerefiner
**Rerefiner