The first price increase of 2006 will apparently take place on the naphthenic side of the U.S. base oil market. Nynas USA Inc. said yesterday that it will raise prices on all products by 10 cents per gallon, effective Jan. 30.
Nynas attributed its decision to rising costs for crude oil, natural gas and other inputs.
There was no word of movements by other pale oil suppliers.
Base oil prices were unusually volatile in 2004 and 2005, with rising oil and energy costs driving numerous hikes for both naphthenic and paraffinic stocks.
On the paraffinic side of the market, there was no news the past week from Petro-Canada about its investigation into a Jan. 7 fire at its base oil plant in Mississauga, Ontario, or the status of operations there. Last week the company said the incident had halted a production train that accounts for half of the facilitys 12,500-barrel-per-day capacity, and it did not know when production would resume. Officials were unavailable for comment yesterday.
Posted prices for paraffinics in the United States were unchanged the past week. The price of crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange closed yesterday at $66.75 per barrel, according to Bloomberg. That was $3.40 higher than the previous week.
Historic U.S. posted base oil prices and WTI and Brent crude spot prices are available for purchase in Excel format.