Shells Quaker State launched a cash-back bonus program that rewards its motor oil customers by paying Kelley Blue Book trade-in-value, up to $3,000, for their vehicle once it reaches 300,000 miles. The reward is for use of its synthetic, synthetic blend or higher mileage engine oils when the vehicle reaches 300,000 miles, subject to numerous terms and conditions. Qualifying for the cash-back bonus will likely require at least 45 to 50 oil changes using one of the Quaker State specialty oils ...

A planned 200,000 metric ton per year base oil plant in Shymkent will begin producing API Groups II and III base oils in 2014, a Kazakh executive revealed. The project is a partnership between Kazakh lubricant blender Hill Corp. and the state energy giant KazMunayGas, Rahimzhan Nupbayev, Hills executive director, told Lube Report. We already signed a written statement with KazMunayGas and its subsidiary PetroKazakhstan, for supplying feed stock for the plant from the nearby refinery, he said Mo...

GEO Specialty Chemicals will buy BASFs bisomer monomer business, including a former Cognis facility in England that produces polyalkylene glycols and PAG-based lubricants. Terms were not disclosed. Subject to approval by the EU Commission, the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2011. About 140 employees are expected to transfer to the new owner, GEO Specialty Chemicals UK Ltd. When the EU Commission approved BASFs acquisition of Cognis in December 2010, it required BASF t...

ExxonMobil will consolidate its Houston offices at a new campus on a 385-acre wooded site in north Houston starting in early 2014, and may move other U.S. offices there too. Most employees working in the companys Houston Upstream head office activities, along with ExxonMobil Chemical Co. and various staff support services, will be based at the campus. Employees will move in phases as the buildings are constructed. Full occupancy for Houston-based employees is expected by 2015. The office compl...

Eni and Novamont formed a joint venture to invest 500 million (U.S. $734 million) in new facilities in Italy to produce biobased lubricants and other products. The companies said they will design, build and manage a new biorefinery at the existing Porto Torres, Italy, petrochemical plant owned by Eni subsidiaries Polimeri Europa and Syndial. Novara, Italy-based Novamont will provide technologies for the design, building and operation of the new facilities. Eni, based in Rome, will provide the ...

Chemtura will build a multi-purpose manufacturing facility in Nantong, China, to serve its petroleum additives and urethanes businesses and provide additional capacity for other Chemtura businesses. We expect that startup would be sometime in 2013, Chemtura spokesman John Gustavsen told Lube Report. This project lays the groundwork for growth through investment in the worlds most rapidly expanding market, said Craig Rogerson, Chemturas chairman, president and CEO. It will enhance our ability t...

Troy, Oxea and Kraton Polymers will increase prices for lubricants and lubricant-related chemicals. Troy Corp. will increase prices globally for various performance additives by 2 to 30 percent effective July 1. Products affected include defoamers/anti-foam additives, dispersants, flow and leveling and substrate-wetting additives and rheology modifiers. Continued large increases in costs for key raw materials, including petroleum-derived products, mineral oils, tall oil fatty acid, amines and...

In the U.S. and Europe demand for space has waned, yet in spite of this, freight levels remain firm on the majority of routes. Asia however continues to record lower numbers across many domestic routes. U.S. Gulf of Mexico Only a handful of the fleet of ships still open in the U.S. Gulf in June have managed to fix away. Normally this would trigger a sharp drop in freight rates, but we notice that owners continue to quote the same levels as before. Where cargoes are fixed, the actual rate turns...