Volume 12 Issue 36

U.S. Base Oil Output Slips 5.7%

For U.S. base oil producers, 2012 seems to be shaping up a lot like 2010. Refiners output of lubricant base oils reached 29.3 million barrels in the first six months of this year, down roughly 5.7 percent from the 31.1 million barrels produced in the first half of 2011 but identical to what they manufactured in first-half 2010. According to data released Thursday by the Energy Information Agency, U.S. paraffinic base oil production from January through June 2012 amounted to 24.2 million barrels...

Gazprom Upgrading Serbian Base Oil Plant

Naftna Industrija Srbije, a subsidiary of the Russian oil major Gazprom Neft, last week announced plans for boosting its lubricants production and upgrading its base oil plant in Novi Sad, Serbia. The U.S. $100 million modernization will enable the Novi Sad refinery to process 180,000 tons of high-quality base oils annually, Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS) said in an Aug. 29 press release, adding that a significant amount of the output will be earmarked for export. We have analyzed in detail n...

Texting Puts Heartland in Hot Water

Jiffy Lube franchisee Heartland Automotive Services agreed to a class action lawsuit settlement worth almost $47 million over allegations it texted more than 2.3 million consumers in April 2011 with a commercial message without their express consent. Attorney Jay Edelson of Edelson McGuire LLC, who is serving as an interim lead class counsel in the case, said that Sept. 17 has been set as the date for seeking preliminary approval of the class action settlement agreement at U.S. District Court ...

OSHA Harmonization Could Be Costly

These changes are significant, and the cost of compliance could run in the low- to mid-six figures. This was the sobering conclusion of Jeff Leiter, general counsel of the Petroleum Packaging Council, on the OSHA rule to harmonize its Hazard Communications Standard with the Globally Harmonized System (GHS). Speaking at PPCs fall meeting in Charleston, S.C., Leiter noted that the costs include software and system upgrades needed to manage the changes, as well as the time involved in updating pr...

Avista Oil Expands North Sea Presence

Avista Oil AG, one of the biggest producers of rerefined base oils in Europe, became majority owner of the Dutch North Refining and Trading rerefinery. The former co-owner, Dutch Van Gansewinkel Groep, sold its 33 percent stake in the Delfzij, Netherlands-based rerefinery on Aug. 20. This is a successful investment for us, and we are convinced that it will be such in the future for all parties involved, Bernd Merle, the CEO of Germany-based Avista Oil said in a press release. The majority holdi...

SSY Base Oil Shipping Report

Activity in the United States came to an abrupt stop with the arrival of Hurricane Isaac. European markets have been steady but uninspiring and Asia continues to be active with prompt space reported to be scarce on several trade lanes. U.S. Gulf of Mexico: Just a week or so ago, the U.S. market was slowly hauling itself out of the mire, with vessels starting to be fixed away and a bit more business coming to light. Then Hurricane Isaac struck, followed in quick succession by the Labor Day long...