Weekly Americas Base Oil Price Report

Meanwhile, the war in Iran and the Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz appeared to have been put on the back burner in U.S. President Donald Trump’s agenda as he focused his attention on his first visit to China in nearly nine years. The president is scheduled to meet with Chinese president Xi Jinping this week and will be accompanied by several corporate executives as he hopes to secure commercial deals for the U.S., while he was also expected to discuss trade, tariffs and the long-standing dispute over Taiwan.

Before his China trip, president Trump had said that Iran’s terms to end the war had been unacceptable and that talks were “on life support,” with the ongoing ceasefire expected to be extended indefinitely. Crude futures settled higher for a third consecutive session on Tuesday, with West Texas Intermediate hovering near $102 per barrel because of the stalled negotiations.

In other industry news, a fire broke out at HollyFrontier Sinclair’s Tulsa, Oklahoma, refinery on Monday, May 11. The fire was quickly extinguished and one person was rushed to the hospital, according to local media reports. The cause of the fire has not been disclosed and it was not yet clear whether the accident would affect base oil production. HF Sinclair operates a 9,500- barrels-per-day API Group I base oil plant at this location.

Group I and Group II base oils

Following posted price increases by Motiva and Calumet last week, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Paulsboro communicated a fresh round of increases this week, driven by soaring crude oil prices and tightening global base oil supplies.

Chevron communicated a posted price increase of 90 cents per gallon for all of its Group II grades, which went into effect on May 12 “to reflect current market conditions,” the company said in a letter to customers.

According to reports, ExxonMobil also announced posted price increases for its Group I, Group II and Group II+ base oils, which will go into effect on May 14. The producer’s Group I SN100, SN150, SN330 will be increased by 71 cents/gal; its SN600 by 83 cents/gal; and its bright stock by 71 cents/gal. The company’s Group II EHC65 grade and Group II+ EHC45 cut will be adjusted up by 60 cents/gal, “due to continued changing global and regional supply/demand balances,” the company explained.

Paulsboro will also be increasing its Group I light and mid-viscosity grades by 71 cents/gal, its heavy-viscosity grade by 83 cents/gal and its bright stock by 71 cents/gal on May 19.

While there continued to be keen interest in spot barrels and export availability, most producers were focusing on meeting contract commitments. Suppliers have had to place some customers on allocation and a few were considering cuts for the coming months. Buying appetite was particularly robust in other regions that were feeling the Middle East supply crunch more strongly. Buyers in Europe and Latin America continued to show interest in U.S. barrels. However, most producers were not in a position to offer substantial spot quantities, and a few have also started to consider the need to build stocks ahead of the hurricane season along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Aside from the overall tight conditions in all regions, a two-week partial turnaround at Motiva’s Port Arthur, Texas, Group II/III plant and a turnaround at HF Sinclair’s Tulsa, Oklahoma, Group I unit in April may have contributed to the snug supply situation in the U.S. It was not clear whether base oil production had been affected by a refinery fire at HF Sinclair’s Tulsa refinery earlier this week.

Additionally, Chevron’s Pascagoula, Mississippi, Group II plant was expected to be shut down for maintenance in June, and the producer was anticipated to be building inventories ahead of the outage.

Rerefined base oils have also tightened on the back of limited availability from most virgin base oil producers, and customers were heard to be taking all of the volumes that were available to them under contract.

In Brazil, Group I and Group II supplies were strained given that there have been few U.S. and Asian cargoes available for export, and an outage at Brazilian producer Petrobras’ plant that started back in February had also exacerbated the snug Group I supply conditions, particularly of the heavy-viscosity base oils and bright stock. Base oil prices have surged because of the challenges importers face in finding spot supplies of most grades. Domestic prices were heard to have climbed by up to 50% in May, exerting pressure on finished products.

Contract shipments continued to move from the U.S. to Mexico as scheduled, but suppliers were being strict in terms of volumes and have placed some customers on allocation. Spot price indications have moved up in line with increases in the U.S. and much of the rest of the world, but even at the steeper levels, cargoes were largely unavailable. Just like their U.S. counterparts, Mexican blenders were trying to pass steeper raw materials, transportation and packaging costs down the supply chain, but faced resistance from lubricant and finished products consumers on lackluster consumer spending.

Group III

Group III flows from the Middle East Gulf remained constrained amid ongoing disruptions to transit through the Strait of Hormuz and production shutdowns due to damages on base oil facilities from Iranian drone attacks. Approximately 50% of the U.S.’ Group III needs are fulfilled by Middle East products coming from Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. While some Middle East cargoes arrived in the U.S. over the last few weeks as shipments had been on the water when the war started, or were lifted from storage facilities in other locations, supplies were expected to dry up by the end of the month or early June if shipments did not resume soon, sources speculated. Middle East base oil suppliers were heard to have already placed customers on 50-60% allocation so as to be able to keep delivering product for longer and not cut off supply completely.

While Asian supplies have also been expected to be reduced because refineries in that region were heard to be running below capacity due to a lack of Middle East crude oil, operating rates at several units were anticipated to increase as some nations have released strategic emergency oil supplies, or have imported crude from alternative sources. Experts cautioned that yields may be affected given that most Asian refineries were built to run on Dubai/Oman, Murban and Arab sour crudes, and government mandates also required refiners to prioritize fuel production over other refined products, which could affect base oil output. Nevertheless, there was some optimism that the extremely tight conditions in Asia would start to ease.

A key South Korean supplier was heard to be able to continue running well and produce enough base oils to meet contract commitments as it has diversified its crude sources over the last few years, with the refinery able to handle alternative crudes much better than other refineries. The supplier is therefore able to meet customer demand, both on the domestic front, as well as for export, with barrels continuing to move to the U.S., while it continued to manage inventories closely.

A second South Korean producer was heard to be highly dependent on Middle East crude imports and was therefore only focusing on meeting term obligations, placing customers on strict allocations, sources said.

Domestic Group III producers were running plants at close to full rates to meet contract obligations, with expectations that those Group II producers who can also manufacture Group III base oils would increase production to cover some of the current supply gaps and take advantage of the elevated Group III prices.

Naphthenic Base Oils

On the naphthenics side of the business, producers continued to watch crude oil prices and the tightening supply and demand ratio closely. While crude prices have shown some fluctuations, price levels were still considered high enough to support current base oil values. Recent plant turnarounds, steady domestic demand and brisk export business have exacerbated the extremely snug market conditions. These conditions have prompted suppliers Ergon, Process Oils/Cross Oil, Calumet and San Joaquin Refining to increase prices several times since the start of the Iran conflict on February 28, but no fresh announcements emerged during the week.

While the tight fundamentals were particularly evident in the light-viscosity segment, demand for the heavier grades has started to ramp up as the rubber and tire segments prepare inventories for the U.S. summer driving season, which traditionally starts on Memorial Day weekend in late May. Some emerging demand also comes for pale oils that can be used as a substitute for some heavy paraffinic cuts, as these were extremely tight and prices have skyrocketed.

In terms of production, Calumet restarted its naphthenic base oil plant in Princeton, Louisiana, earlier this month, following a turnaround that began in mid-April. The producer said that the turnaround had gone to plan, and the unit was running well, allowing the supplier to work on building back inventory levels.  

San Joaquin Refining completed a scheduled turnaround at its refinery in Bakersfield, California, in March, while Cross Oil completed a maintenance program at its plant in Smackover, Arkansas, also in March.

Lubricant Increases

A majority of lubricant and grease manufacturers have communicated price increases given the mounting costs of base oils, additives, packaging and transportation over the last two months. The implementation dates have been set between March 11 and May 20, with some suppliers nominating one increase and some two separate increases since the start of the war in Iran. Participants underscored that given current uncertainties and the fast pace of market changes—not to mention the escalating production costs–it has been very challenging to plan inventories and make pricing decisions.

Among the manufacturers that have announced increases were Calumet, CAM2, Castrol, Shell/SOPUS, PennStar, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Citgo, Phillips 66, Martin Lubricants, AOCUSA/Amalie, Highline Warren, Reliance Fluid Technologies, TotalEnergies USA, Consolidated Brands/ZXP Technologies, Omni Specialty Packaging, and Valvoline. Most suppliers announced lubricant and grease increases of up to 9% to 35%, depending on the product, with some lubricant increases ranging 48 cents/gal gallon to $5/gal, and $0.07-0.11/lb for greases. The higher end of the range applied to fully synthetic lubricants and it was also inclusive of previous increases. It was heard that the increases had gained some acceptance among buyers as supplies have tightened and there were concerns of potential shortages if the Middle East war continued.

Middle East Base Oil Capacity Shutdowns

According to reports, Shell/Qatar Petroleum has halted production at one train of its Pearl GTL Group II/Group III facility in Qatar after sustaining damage during Iranian aerial attacks on March 19. The plant, which can produce 300,000 metric tons of Group II base oils and 1,072,000 tons of Group III base oils per year, experienced a fire at one of its processing trains and production has been shut down at that train, with sources expecting the plant to remain offline for an extended period, possibly one year or longer as the specially designed equipment at the plant may be difficult to repair and may need to be replaced, according to sources. Earlier Iranian attacks on Qatar Energy’s LNG refinery in Ras Laffan, which supplies feedstocks to the Pearl unit, caused damages that will put the facilities out of commission for several years, with the company expected to declare force majeure on LNG contracts for up to five years, Reuters reported.

Abu Dhabi state oil giant ADNOC has shut part of its Ruwais refinery complex in response to ‌a fire that broke out on March 10, following a drone strike. Sources indicated that while the Ruwais West refinery was shut down for inspection and safety reasons, other operations within the massive complex might be continuing at reduced capacity. According to sources, the Ruwais East unit was running and was expected to continue production, including that of base oils, but this could not be confirmed with the producer directly. The Ruwais complex houses a 600,000 -tons-per-year Group II and Group III plant. ADNOC has been able to ship product out through ports on the Red Sea, according to sources.

In Bahrain, fire erupted at BAPCO’s refinery in Maameer on March 5 following an Iranian attack, forcing the refinery to declare force majeure on production. BAPCO operates a 400,000 tons-per-year Group III base oil facility in Sitra, within the BAPCO refinery complex. BAPCO originally indicated that base oil production had been unaffected, but it was later heard that the producer had trimmed supply levels.

In Saudi Arabia, a drone struck the SAMREF oil refinery in Yanbu, while Saudi forces intercepted a ballistic missile targeting the Port of Yanbu–one of the few ports where tankers are still able to lift cargoes as it is located on the Red Sea.

Crude Oil

Crude oil futures recorded gains during the first part of the week, but eased on Wednesday as investors pinned their hopes on a resolution of the Middle East conflict and awaited news about the summit that will be held on Thursday in Beijing between U.S. president Donald Trump and China’s president Xi Jinping.

• West Texas Intermediate June 2026 futures settled on the Nymex at $102.18/bbl on May 12, slightly down from $102.27/bbl for front-month futures on May 5.
• Brent July 2026 futures were trading on the ICE at $107.67/bbl on May 13, up from $103.44/bbl for front-month futures on May 6.
• Louisiana Light Sweet crude wholesale spot prices were hovering at $103.06/bbl on May 11. Spot prices had settled at $107.16/bbl on May 5, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Diesel

Low-sulfur diesel wholesale, May 11 (May 5), EIA
New York Harbor: $4.05/gal ($4.11/gal)
Gulf Coast: $3.96/gal ($4.04/gal)
Los Angeles: $4.29/gal ($4.20/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 May 13, 2026

(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