A Pennsylvania lubricants company officials alleged attempt to sidestep state regulations by installing fake vents on tanks has led to criminal charges against him and a Sept. 1 court hearing. The Pennsylvania Attorney General June 29 charged Scot Lubricants President Timothy D. Fritz with directing employees to fabricate phony modifications to oil storage and blending tanks at its Allentown location to avoid complying with state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) venting regulations....

Safety-Kleen Systems will begin preliminary engineering for its third North American base oil rerefinery, and is analyzing potential sites in the U.S. Southeast and Gulf Coast regions. We have several locations under evaluation, each of which makes good sense in terms of used oil availability, existing infrastructure and logistics, said Dave Sprinkle, Safety-Kleens executive vice president for oil rerefining. Now we have to determine which site makes the most economic sense. The company said t...

Lonza will acquire 100 percent of Arch Chemicals shares for $47.20 per share in a transaction valued at $1.4 billion. Both Basel, Switzerland-based Lonza and Arch Chemical of Norwalk, Conn., make biocides, which are used to control the growth of microorganisms in paints, architectural coatings and metalworking fluids. In terms of the two companies respective biocides businesses, our portfolios are complementary and not competitive, Lonza spokeswoman Melanie Disa told Lube Report. We do not co...

Universal Environmental Services closed on up to $52 million in financing for engineering, construction and commissioning of a rerefinery in Peachtree City, Ga., with up to 30 million gallons processing capacity. Universal on Tuesday said that together with capital from its joint venture with Uetz, Germany-based Avista Oil AG, the financing will be enough to complete the rerefinery by 2013s first quarter. Earlier this year, Avista Oil acquired a 50 percent stake in Universal, enabling it to gro...

Repsol has begun producing lubricants in China and Malaysia, as a result of its agreement reached last November with Malaysian conglomerate UMW Group. The lubricants will be distributed throughout China and Malaysia, along with other countries in the region, including Singapore, Brunei, Papua New Guinea and Myanmar. By the end of the five-year agreement, Repsol expects to achieve a sales volume of more than 20,000 tons per year of lubricants, equivalent to more than 25 percent of Repsols annual...

WD-40 posted $8.1 million net income for the quarter ending May 31, down 11 percent from the year-ago period, with net sales up 3.6 percent at $85.5 million. Earnings fell to 47 cents per diluted share in WD-40s fiscal third quarter, compared to 54 cents per share in the year-earlier period. San Diego-based WD-40s fiscal year runs from Sept. 1 to Aug. 31. The companys third-quarter sales in the Americas declined 1 percent to $46.2 million, sales in Europe rose 4 percent to $28.1 million, and A...