In less than 20 years, the vast majority of new car sales in Europe are projected to be electric vehicles, a shift that will cause a big hit to passenger car motor oil demand, while metalworking fluid demand briefly rises and then declines, consultancy Kline & Co. said last week.

After it sold a refinery in Italy, a Romanian official speculated recently that Russian oil major Lukoil could sell its assets in Romania, too, due to pressure created by sanctions over the war in Ukraine. Those assets include a lubricant factory in Ploiesti with production capacity of 40,000 metric tons per year.

Aug. 14 is the deadline for comments on a European Chemicals Agency draft opinion on a proposal to restrict medium-chain chlorinated paraffins and other substances containing chloroalkanes with C14 to C17 range carbon chain lengths.