Lubes’n’Greases’ editor Gabriela Wheeler shares her perspectives on seemingly never-ending base oil market uncertainty. Two years of the COVID-19 pandemic had already battered the industry. Just as the market emerged from the gloom earlier in 2022, the conflict in Ukraine is prolonging the chaos.

While Europe faces yet more economic and energy supply worries, buyers in India and China are snapping up cheap Russian crude. Another lockdown in China has kept refining capacity under-utilized and demand for base oil low.