The two parties have also reached an agreement for LyondellBasell to process about 800 b/d of white mineral oil at its Houston refinery for Calumet. The volume will supplement Calumets existing white mineral oil production at its Karns City, Pa., and Dickinson, Texas facilities.

The agreements give Calumet exclusive use of LyondellBasells registered trademarks and trade names, including Tufflo, Duoprime, Crystex, Ideal and Aquamarine.

The appeal of the agreement is that it gives us additional production and another distribution point for these products that we already make, Jennifer Straumins, senior vice president for Calumet Specialty Products Partners, told Lube Report. Its both a logistics and volume deal for Calumet.

LyondellBasell filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2009. The company has said it expects to emerge from bankruptcy in early 2010. The agreements with Calumet are expected to become effective Nov. 1, subject to approval of LyondellBasells motion with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court.

As a part of that process, we have the opportunity to evaluate all contracts that currently exist, LyondellBasell public affairs director David Harpole explained to Lube Report. In the process of evaluating specific contracts at our refineries regarding the lubricants business, we solicited bids for replacement production contracts, and were able to find and enter into new, more attractive agreements to sell both the naphthenic lubricants and white oils. Were doing that as a package deal with Calumet as opposed to with the separate entities previously.

According to Harpole, Stockholm, Sweden-based Nynas has been marketing the naphthenic lubricants, and Coral Gables, Fla.-based Schumann Steierthe white mineral oils. We produced the materials as part of our refining process, all manufactured by Houston Refining, and it was marketed by these other two entities, Harpole noted.