Most trading areas went off the boil over the Easter holidays, but Europe seems to be taking an extended break as all routes out of Europe have been very quiet this week. The United States has taken a breather too, whereas Asia is gradually looking busier. U.S. Gulf of Mexico There has been a palpable drop in the amount of business quoted out of the United States over the past couple of weeks, and the evidence lies in the number of ships that remain fully open in the U.S. Gulf still within Apr...

Spanish refiner Repsol and Spains government blasted Argentinas decision to nationalize oil and gas company YPF SA, which would put 51 percent of Repsol-owned shares under government control. YPF is Argentinas leading lubricants supplier and operates a base oil plant. The nationalization will leave Repsol with a 6 percent stake in the company. Repsols 57 percent stake in YPF was valued at 4.1 billion (U.S. $5.4 billion) in consolidated financial statements as of Dec. 31. Argentinian President...

Base oil capacity in the United States totaled 217,300 barrels per day on Jan. 1, unchanged from 2011, according to American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers 2012 Lubricating Oil and Wax Capacities Report. The report contains data on base oil and wax plants in the United States, Canada and Latin America. AFPMchanged its name last year fromNational Petrochemical and Refiners Association. U.S. API Group I capacity was 63,600 b/d, Group II and III capacity reached 105,600 b/d, and napththe...

Oil Refinery Modrica has begun expansion of its API Group III base oil plant and construction of a new lubricant blending plant, the company said last week. Scheduled to be completed in 2014, the project will increase the Bosnia and Herzegovina refinerys base oil capacity to 200,000 metric tons per year. The Modrica refinery operates under the trademark Nestro and is owned by the Russian joint stock company Zarubezhneft. The refinery began making Group III oils in 2009 after repairing a refiner...

Fuel and lubricants packager and distributor SMF Energy and its subsidiaries filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy petitions in Florida, saying efforts to reduce operating losses had not succeeded. The companys subsidiaries include lubricants packager and distributor H & W Petroleum, which SMF, formerly known as Streicher Mobile Fueling, acquired in 2005. The other subsidiaries are SMF Services and Streicher Realty. On March 16, SMF announced it expected a substantial reduction in sales revenue and...

Shell Russia is setting its sights on Ukraines lubricants market once its 180,000 tons per year blending plant in Torzhok begins full production, the company said Tuesday. Now that the plant is operational, [It] brings world-scale production capacity closer to customers, allowing us to supply the fast growing Russian market with a full range of high-quality lubricants, Vera Surzhenko, spokeswoman for Shell Russia, told Lube Report. After the start of commercial production and the plant reaching ...