SEOUL, South Korea – Chinas taste for better lubricants is accelerating its shift to API Group II base oil, according to C1 Energy, and all three government-owned oil companies are working on projects to produce it in coming years. While Group I and low-end base oils accounted for about two thirds of Chinas market share in 2010, Group II and III base oils show great potential, C1 Energy Information Manager Nancy Shi told the ICIS Asian Base Oils & Lubricants Conference here June 14, ...

Global lubricating grease production in 2010 surpassed 2.3 billion pounds, which is back to the same levels as 2007 and a 13 percent gain over 2009, according to the newly published NLGI Grease Production Survey Report. China, which reported making a total 897 million pounds of grease in 2010, or 39 percent of global output, is the undisputed heavyweight champion of grease manufacturing, the report shows. Second place goes to North America’s 455 million pounds. “The 2010 survey show...

SEOUL, South Korea – Petronas Base Oil, an arm of Malaysias national oil company, said it is converting more of its Melaka refinerys fuels into base oils, and considering biobased base oil projects. Our base oil plant, which we call MG3 (Melaka Group III) was designed to produce something like 10,000 barrels per day of different base oils and fuels. We recognized early on the special characteristics of those fuels, CEO Joe Rousmaniere told Lube report in an interview here June 13. Our des...

Gazprom Neft-SM has set up an office in Almaty, Kazakhstan, to market lubricants in Central Asia, with a focus on premium products and technical support. Before 2010 most of the regions lubricant demand was met with low-quality GOST-specification motor oils, supplied in bulk. But since then, premium motor and industrial oil demand in Central Asia is growing, according to Gazprom-Neft-SM, Russian energy giant Gazproms lubricants arm. The representative offices primary task is to increase the c...

There is not quite so much prompt tonnage open in the U.S. Gulf, but space is still generally long and demand is subdued. Europe is marginally busier, as is Asia. U.S. Gulf of Mexico One by one, the prompt ships in the U.S. Gulf have latched onto a cargo here and there. For the owners it has been an agonisingly slow affair, and not all have managed to find enough cargo to fill the ships. Owners just seem pleased that they have managed to get their ships moving and without sacrificing too much o...