Market Topics

Shell Nudges GTL Output

July 30, 2003

Shell International Gas Ltd. recently debottlenecked its gas-to-liquids plant in Bintulu, Malaysia, increasing production of the feedstock it uses to ...

ExxonMobil Corp. last week announced a five-year technology alliance with Symyx Technologies Inc., aimed at speeding the oil giants search for new cat ...

Base Oil Price Report

July 30, 2003

U.S. lubricant blenders may soon have another source for Group I stocks: the Italian oil company Agip Petroli S.p.A. The companys subsidiary in the Un ...

Calling it a commercial breakthrough for its soybean-based lubricants, the University of Northern Iowas Ag-Based Industrial Lubricants Research Progra ...

Spring 2003 was not financially refreshing for Lubrizol Corp. or Valvoline, as both companies recorded year-to-year declines in earnings for the quart ...

British additive supplier Polartech Ltd. announced Monday that it has entered the Mexican market by signing a long-term distribution agreement with a ...

Base Oil Price Report

July 23, 2003

Posted prices for paraffinic base oils in the United States have not changed for nearly six months, and some market observers say it could be several ...

ChevronTexaco Corp. announced Monday that it is reorganizing its lubricants business and other downstream operations in an effort to cut costs. The co ...

Lambent Technologies has a new home and Lubrizol Corp. another new product line, both the result of a three-way sale by chemical company BASF. The com ...

So much for speculation that American Refining Group is living on borrowed time. The mite-sized oil company this week announced the startup of an isom ...

Hurricane Claudette came ashore in Texas yesterday, and washed outthe APILubricants Committee meeting that was scheduled for Houston today, aspokeswom ...

Base Oil Price Report

July 16, 2003

The summer of 2003 is shaping up as a quiet one for the U.S. naphthenics market, which is better than many observers predicted at the start of the yea ...

The state of California is stepping up its enforcement of a law requiring marketers of API SA and SB engine oils to label them as obsolete and potenti ...

Indias Gulf Oil Corporation Ltd., part of the Gulf Oil International family, last week formed a joint venture with Oil Bangladesh Ltd. to blend and ma ...

Dover Chemical Corp. says its newly swelled share of the chlorinated paraffin market shouldnt be too big for antitrust regulators. But Pioneer Compani ...

Base Oil Price Report

July 9, 2003

Maybe the U.S. base oil market has gone so long without a price change that observers are having difficulty foreseeing one. Whatever the reason, there ...

Development of GF-4, the new gasoline engine oil quality upgrade, was becalmed throughout most of the winter. Forward movement resumed in the spring a ...

Dover Chemical Corp. announced yesterday that it has acquired the Keil Chemical Division of Ferro Corp. The transaction unites the two largest North A ...

Lubricant blender Bodie-Hoover Petroleum Corp. is going out of business – the result, say company officials, of a tough economy and an unfavorab ...

Base Oil Price Report

July 2, 2003

The U.S. base oil market had some good supply news for a change last week. Excel Paralubes resumed production Thursday, three days ahead of schedule. ...