Weekly Americas Base Oil Price Report

Many manufacturers were struggling to meet the strict technical specifications mandated by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) due to the lack of Group III grades. Back in March, the Independent Lubricant Manufacturers Association (ILMA) asked the American Petroleum Institute (API) to apply force majeure provisions under API 1509 to give blenders the flexibility to replace base oils or adjust formulations while maintaining compliance, and this request led the API to activate emergency provisional licensing measures. The Group III scarcity has also driven many blenders to turn to  Group II oils, but with demand for diesel increasing and prices skyrocketing, refiners were favoring fuel production over base oils, reducing Group II buffer stocks. Buyers and sellers were also trying to build inventories to cover potential supply disruptions during the upcoming hurricane season, but this task was proving difficult to achieve as there were few extra barrels available within the supply system.

Participants were also keeping a close eye on crude oil futures, since prices remained highly volatile. West Texas Intermediate and Brent futures plunged by ​nearly 6% to two-week lows on Monday as optimism grew that the U.S. and Iran were close to reaching a peace deal, but prices jumped by 3% on Tuesday after the United States said it had carried out strikes on missile launch sites in Iran and on vessels trying to deploy mines, amid signals from Israel that it planned to intensify its campaign against the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, seemingly derailing the ongoing peace talks.

Group I and Group II
Following posted price increases by ExxonMobil, SK Enmove, Calumet and HF Sinclair last week, reports emerged that Excel Paralubes had also increased its posted Group II prices by 55 cents per gallon on May 20. Avista Oil increased its rerefined Group II and Group III prices by 95 cents/gal on May 22.

While ExxonMobil adjusted its base oil prices last week, Paulsboro abstained from revising its Group I postings this time.

Both the Group I and Group II grades continued to be described as extremely tight in the U.S., with hardly any spot availability detected. Suppliers reported that they were seeing high levels of inquiries for additional supplies. A number of producers have sales controls in place and this was driving buyers to look for alternative sources of products. Within the Group I category, suppliers said that bright stock was probably the tightest grade as demand for industrial, heavy duty and agricultural applications was robust, but the heavy cuts were snug as well.

Even though buyers and sellers were trying to build emergency stocks to cover potential supply outages during hurricane season, which starts in June, there were few, if any, extra volumes available for this purpose.

Despite the extremely tight base stock conditions and elevated crude oil prices, producers have turned more cautious in terms of additional price increases to avoid further demand destruction as some blenders are unable to absorb the mounting production costs.

Recent and upcoming scheduled turnarounds in the U.S. may have exacerbated the tight supply situation. Motiva was heard to have completed a two-week partial turnaround at its Port Arthur, Texas, Group II/III plant in April, which mainly affected its mid-viscosity base oils.

HF Sinclair’s Tulsa, Oklahoma, Group I unit also completed a maintenance program in April. Base oil production was not affected by an isolated refinery fire at the Tulsa refinery two weeks ago.

Additionally, Chevron’s Pascagoula, Mississippi, Group II/Group III plant was expected to start a turnaround in June, and the producer was anticipated to be building inventories ahead of the outage, restricting its spot availability even further.

Rerefined base oils have also tightened on the back of strong offtake from contract customers and offered very thin spot availability.

Most Group I and Group II suppliers have been unable to offer spot barrels for export business, although some small cargoes managed to move to Brazil and Europe, particularly as Brazilian Group I supplies have been very tight. The arbitrage into Europe was attractive because European base oil prices have surged, and availability was restricted due to European refiners focusing on fuel production in detriment to base oil output. However, there were no fresh transactions into Europe reported during the week.

There were expectations of increased Asian Group II and Group III cargoes becoming available for spot business as refining rates increase in that region and demand declines, with a few May shipments heard to have been completed. Some of these cargoes may be headed to the U.S., but this could not be confirmed. Latin America was said to be attracting Asian base oil cargoes as well.

An outage at Brazilian producer Petrobras’ plant that started back in February has resulted in snug Group I supplies, particularly of the heavy-viscosity base oils and bright stock, and an upcoming turnaround in June may exacerbate the tight conditions. Base oil prices have surged because of the scarcity of spot supplies from the U.S. and Asia. Domestic prices were heard to have been adjusted up for next month, exerting pressure on finished products. However, a gradual increase in refinery runs in Asia may make additional cargoes available into South America in the coming weeks, although deliveries will take at least a couple of months.

In Mexico, buyers have been resisting higher prices and some U.S. suppliers have halted exports temporarily, particularly of the light grades. The situation was slightly different for the heavy-vis grades and bright stock, since these cuts have been very difficult to obtain and consumers appeared willing to pay higher values in line with export markets in Latin America and Europe. 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 given the country’s economic situation and fuel increases that were dampening consumer spending. Furthermore, Asian availabilities may become an alternative for Mexican consumers in the coming weeks as supply levels are gradually improving in that region.

Group III
The longer the conflict in Iran remains unresolved, the more dire the situation for Group III buyers in the U.S. will become, as close to 44% of Group III supplies originate in the Middle East. With flows from the Persian Gulf disrupted due to Iran’s chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz and production shutdowns caused by damage to base oil facilities from Iranian drone attacks, U.S. consumers have seen severe shortages of Group III base oils and have found few alternative sources of product.

The balance of supplies in the U.S. typically comes from Asia and Canada, but Asian refiners had reduced output due to curbed refinery production rates triggered by a lack of Middle East crude oil shipments. However, the situation appeared to be gradually improving as several countries have tapped into strategic emergency crude stocks to keep refineries running, or have imported crude oil from alternative sources such as Latin America, the U.S., Australia and Africa. While yields may not be as high as those achieved with the sour crude oil slates from the Middle East–which most Asian refineries are built to run on–there were expectations of improved production rates.

A number of factors may not allow producers to achieve top production rates, however. Some local governments required refiners to prioritize fuel production over that of other refined products to protect fuel supplies for the general population. The price of diesel and other fuels has skyrocketed over the last three months and offered better margins than base oils, which may induce refiners to direct more feedstocks into the production of fuels versus that of base stocks. This would particularly affect Group II grades, sources said.

Additional Group III volumes might be moving to the U.S. from South Korea in the coming weeks. A key South Korean supplier was heard to be able to continue running well and produce base oils to fully 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. Asian base oil demand was also heard to be weakening due to the extremely high prices, freeing up more volumes for export.

Meanwhile, domestic Group III producers were trying to run 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.

Naphthenics
Prices in the naphthenic market were mostly stable, although there continued to be upward pressure due to steep crude oil prices and a tight supply and demand balance, particularly of the light grades. The heavy grades have seen improved demand as the summer travel season got officially underway on Memorial Day on May 25, and there is more draw from the rubber and tire segments, as well as for grease production. However, requirements were said to be less robust than in the previous years as consumers appear most conservative in terms of spending due to fuel price increases and inflation.

Producers have implemented several increases since the beginning of the war in Iran on Feb. 28 and kept monitoring crude oil values carefully as any sustained increases would lead them to consider price adjustments again, but no pale oil price revisions emerged during the week.

Lubricant Increases
Several lubricant manufacturers have announced a third series of increases, following two previous rounds that were scheduled to be implemented between March 11 and March 20. The effective dates of the fresh increases range May 22-26. The markups have been driven by the mounting costs of base oils, additives, packaging and transportation over the last two months. Participants underscored that given current uncertainties and the fast pace of market changes—not to mention the escalating production costs–it remained very challenging to plan inventories and make pricing decisions.

Among the manufacturers that have announced various lubricant, grease and finished products increases were TotalEnergies USA, Highline Warren, Martin Lubricants, Omni Specialty Packaging, AOCUSA/Amalie, Calumet, CAM2, Castrol, Shell/SOPUS, PennStar, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Citgo, Phillips 66, Reliance Fluid Technologies, Consolidated Brands/ZXP Technologies and Valvoline. During the first two rounds of increases, suppliers had announced lubricant and grease increases of up to 9% to 35%, depending on the product, with some lubricant increases ranging 48 cents per gallon to $5/gal, and $0.07-0.11/lb for greases. The third round called for increases of up to 26% for most products from one supplier, and markups of $3.00/gal-$3.70/gal for synthetic oils, $2.40/gal-$2.60/gal for other oils, and $0.25/lb-$0.29/lb for greases from the rest of the suppliers.

While the original price hikes had met with buyer resistance, It was heard that the increases had gained some acceptance among consumers as supplies have tightened and there were concerns of more potential shortages if the war in the Middle East continued.

Some manufacturers have been forced to reduce output given difficulties in transfering the higher production costs down the supply chain, coupled with base oil shortages, particularly of Group III cuts. Several OEM dealers were understood to be bracing for difficulties in fulfilling genuine motor oil demand given the current conditions. Dealers and distributors of a number of major automotive manufacturers received notifications of temporary motor oil supply shortages “due to production and logistics constraints within the global petrochemical supply chain,” one letter read. Even if the Strait of Hormuz were reopened tomorrow, the repercussions of the current supply disruptions were expected to be felt until next year. Experts said that the global energy complex may now be “past the point of no return” as every single segment related to crude oil and LNG production has been affected by the conflict.

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 metric tons of Group III base oils per year, was expected 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.

Abu Dhabi state oil giant Adnoc 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. The Ruwais complex houses a 600,000 metric-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.

Crude Oil
Crude oil futures climbed on Tuesday after the U.S. said it had carried out strikes on missile launch sites in Iran and on mine-deploying vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, jeopardizing prospects of a peace deal.

• West Texas Intermediate July 2026 futures settled on the Nymex at $93.89 per barrel on May 26, down from $104.15/bbl for front-month futures on May 19.
• Brent July 2026 futures were trading on the ICE at $96.45/bbl on May 27, down from $109.25/bbl for front-month futures on May 20.
• Louisiana Light Sweet crude wholesale spot prices were hovering at $100.35/bbl on May 22 (There was no trading on May 25 due to the Memorial Day holiday in the U.S). Spot prices had settled at $112.25/bbl on May 18, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Diesel
Low-sulfur diesel wholesale, May 22 (May 18), EIA
New York Harbor: $3.83 per gallon ($4.15/gal)
Gulf Coast: $3.73/gal ($3.92/gal)
Los Angeles: $4.29/gal ($4.28/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 May 27, 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