The American Petroleum Institute sued two oil marketers in Michigan, alleging trademark infringement, counterfeiting, trademark dilution, false advertising and unfair competition, APIs second lawsuit against oil marketers in three weeks. Filed Nov. 4 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, the latest lawsuit names U.S. Energy Resources LLC and Babylon Trading and Developing Inc. as defendants. Individuals associated with the two companies and named as co-defendants incl...

Heartland Petroleum shut down its Ohio rerefinery Friday to install emissions control systems to address odor concerns and to replace a catalyst. Production is expected to begin again by Dec. 10. Opened in 2008, the rerefinery in Columbus has 1,500 barrels per day of API Group II capacity. The plant hydrotreats used automotive oil and industrial oils. A judges court order filed Nov. 16 in Frank County Environmental Court ordered the shutdown, the Ohio Attorney Generals office said. It required ...

MOSCOW – Russian oil major Lukoil plans to add API Group II and III base oil capacity, begin lithium grease production through a joint venture and develop its marine lubricants business in the coming years, a company official said here earlier this month. The company still claims strong leadership in the Russian lubricants market, Maxim Donde, general director of LLK International, Lukoils lubricants arm, told the RPI International Lubricants Russia Conference on Nov. 9. Although our pri...

Petromins new 250,000 metric tons per year capacity lubricants blending plant is now on stream in Saudi Arabia. The plants startup was announced this week by Cellier Activity of ABB France, process automation division. Cellier engineered and supplied the blending plant to Petromin in Jeddah, including both batch and in-line blending technologies. The plants commissioning phase started in August and ended at the end of October, according to ABB. Petromin Executive Vice President Sajid Saeed con...

Very little happened in the U.S., primarily due to the shortage of space. Europe was quiet for similar reasons, while Asian markets were doing their usual routine of pretending to be quiet but really producing quite good levels of employment. U.S. Gulf of Mexico It seems a little ironic, but hardy anything of great note happened in the U.S. market over the past week. This does not mean that there were no potential deals or enquiries. Quite the contrary, there have been lots of cargo opportuniti...