The month of May is turning out to be a rather quiet one for shipping companies, whether they are involved in the Americas, European or Asian markets. All areas are reported to be very slow right now. U.S. Gulf of Mexico: There have not been many bright spots in the U.S. Gulf market over the past week. Rates have fallen further on the U.S. Gulf to Far East route in spite of owners best attempts to push them back up into the $80s/t and even $90s/t. There are certainly fixtures having being do...

Russias Ministry of Economic Development yesterday said the government will review exempting base oil from the new export duty, which one analyst says if enforced could lead to a painful and slow death for some base oil refiners in Russia. Moscow legislators last year introduced a flat export duty for petroleum products such as bitumen, fuel oil, tar oil and vacuum gas oil, as well as base oils and lubricants. The government increased the export duty from the current 66 percent to 100 percent ...

ADM Capital and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) jointly paid 48 million (U.S. $61 million) for a 30 percent stake in Bulgarias Prista Oil Group. EBRD will also provide a 12 million loan to finance Prista Oil Groups capital investment program, which includes expansion of the companys service center network outside of Bulgaria. Today is the day of the service centers, Kalin Trifonov, chief marketing officer for Prista Oil Holding, told Lube Report Monday. The EBRDs fi...

Ashland Consumer Markets notified customers on May 14 that prices for Valvoline brand finished lubricants will increase effective June 4. This price adjustment is a result of various market factors, including but not limited to, additional cost increases in base stocks and other raw materials, Ashland stated in its letter to customers. The letter didnt disclose the amount of the price increase. Several major oil companies-Shell, Chevron, Phillips 66, and Citgo-previously notified U.S. customer...

William R. Downey, Jr., has left Kline & Co., where he headed the consultancys energy practice, and has joined Roland Berger Strategy Consultants as a partner. Downey, a senior vice president and 24-year veteran at Kline, specialized in lubricants, waxes and petroleum specialties at the Parsippany, N.J.-based firm. He is well known as a chairman and speaker at lubricant industry conferences. Two other Kline executives joined Downey in moving to Roland Berger. Jonathan Goldhill was head of ...

Regulatory pressures continue to push metalworking fluid formulators to find alternative chemistries, even in the absence of hard data to back up restrictions, Metalworking Fluid Hot Topics panelists said at last weeks STLE annual meeting. The first to speak, Eugene M. White of Cimcool, Cincinnati, Ohio, summed up the impact of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administrations (OSHA) Hazard Communication (HazCom) 2012 standards. White said that OSHAs spin on the Global Harmonization Sy...