Chevron accelerated a planned shutdown for maintenance and repairs at its Richmond, Calif., base oil plant that was originally scheduled for January 2011, the company confirmed to Lube Report. It has also implemented sales allocations on two grades of the plants API Group II base oils. The new schedule for the maintenance and repair operations is partially in response to reductions in base oil production capacity at [the Richmond base oil plant] which began in June, Chevron said in a statement....

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday authorized nationalization of Venoco, the nations largest independent lubricants blender, according to a statement on his official news blog. The statement said the move came following a recommendation from the South American countrys energy and petroleum ministry and the government-owned Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., which controls all domestic base oil supply and limits the amount available to independent blenders. In the blog post, Chavez claimed bri...

Do Group I base oil plants have a future in Europe? If you’re looking at volume growth, the answer is probably not, according to industry expert Stephen Wright. But in many other ways – including potential for operating profits – he sees API Group I base oil as a resilient product that more than pulls its weight at well-run refineries. Unlocking those profits may be difficult, as Group I demand continues to shrink. Wright, a senior consultant in the London offices of Solomon A...

Indias finished lubricants demand, 1.8 million metric tons valued at almost $2.8 billion in 2009, will grow briskly at 3.7 percent per year for the next five years, according to Kline & Co. Indias overall lubricants market is expected to grow 3.7 percent per year to reach 2.2 million metric tons by 2014, said Milind Phadke, project manager for Kline and Co.s Energy Practice, during a web presentation Oct. 6. The industrial market is the fastest growing at 4.5 percent per year, while the co...

Southwest Research Institute will launch a consortium to study how lubricants might reduce low-speed preignition, a condition that causes heavy engine knock in boosted engines and can seriously damage engine parts or cause engine failure. Low-speed preignition is considered a major impediment to automobile manufacturers efforts to aggressively downsize engines to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The Preignition Prevention Program consortium will develop control solutions and guidelines to preven...

A Zimbabwean-controlled investment company announced yesterday it agreed to purchase BP and Shell operations in Zimbabwe, including a dormant lubricant plant. There was no immediate word about the purchasers plans for that plant. The purchasing company is Masawara Plc, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange and registered on the British Crown offshore financial center of Jersey, although its main office is in Harare, Zimbabwe. According to Newsday Zimbabwe, Shingai Mutasa, one of the coun...

Open space in the U.S. Gulf is much tighter this week following a burst of new business to Europe and Asia. Europe is generally flat and lifeless. Asia is steady, but there are signs that business may be tapering off towards the end of the month. U.S. Gulf of MexicoThe pool of ships that is available for cargoes in any direction out of the U.S. Gulf for October loading looks to have diminished over the past week or so. Additional tonnage has had to be drafted onto the U.S. Gulf to east coast So...