ExxonMobil announced March 24 that construction is progressing on a new linear alpha olefins manufacturing unit at its integrated petrochemical complex in Baytown, Texas. Commercial startup is targeted for mid-2023. First announced in May 2019, the $2.1 billion project includes two units – one with capacity when fully operational to make 350,000 metric tons per year of LAOs, the other to produce 400,000 t/y of performance polymers.

Perimeter Solutions SA’s oil additives business reported lower earnings and sales for the fourth quarter and lower earnings and higher sales for the full year of 2021. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization fell 17% in the fourth quarter to $5.6 million and declined 2% for the year to $23.6 million.

Ted Selby, founder of the Savant Group and a giant in the field of lubricant testing, died Monday at the age of 93. Over a career of more than six decades, Selby developed a number of groundbreaking lubricant testing concepts, methods and devices that have become fundamental to gauging the performance of automotive engine oils.

A caption in the March 23 issue initially misidentified the owner of storage tanks in a photo. The company is Nynas.