At this writing, some 650 companies around the world hold API engine oil licenses. Forty-nine percent of them are based in the United States, Canada and Mexico, while another 37 percent hail from Asia or Australia.

European and Middle Eastern companies hold 11 percent of all licenses, while less than 3 percent come from Latin America or the Caribbean. Africa has even fewer: With just six licensees dotting the entire continent, it has less than 1 percent of the worlds licensees.

Ferrick, who manages the engine oil licensing system from API headquarters in Washington, D.C., explained that all license renewals must be completed through APIs dedicated engine oil website. The secure, password-protected site for licensees is https://engineoil.api.org/AccountManager/WelcomeMarketer.

The renewal process just requires licensees to sign the license agreement, enter the volume of sales, and indicate how they plan to pay the renewal fee, he later told Lube Report. Licensees that only pay the minimum fee can do so by credit card if they so choose.

Renewers pay a flat fee each year of $3,000 per company, not per product. A licensed company then can include any number of products under that approval.

All participants also pay a fee of $0.005 (U.S. one-half cent) per gallon of their total licensed product sold, after the first million gallons. API member companies pay the same fees as nonmembers, and once payment is confirmed, the renewed license is valid through March 31, 2016.

Licensees are responsible for all testing necessary to prove compliance with APIs Engine Oil Licensing and Certification System, Ferrick added.

For 20 years, license renewals involved a paper-based application system. Oil marketers had to fill in six separate forms and API itself had to enter the data, which led to errors and delays and also made updates difficult.

Since last year renewals have all been managed online, and the data is entered and updated directly by licensees themselves, for increased accuracy and control. In New Jersey, Ferrick said he believes this advance has made it far easier for companies to join the system, as shown by a 20 percent increase in the ranks of licensees since the online system was implemented. It is more real-time and effective, he added.

All products holding a current API license are listed in a searchable database at https://engineoil.api.org/Directory/EolcsSearch. Marketers and purchasers worldwide can check the database to see if an oil claiming to meet API standards has actually joined the system and is entitled to display its trademarks.

For information about the EOLCS system, email ferrick@api.org.