The U.S. continues to generate reasonable levels of demand. Europe did not have a bad week either, and even Asia looks slightly more active. U.S. Gulf Owners do not have that much to grumble about when it comes to finding cargoes out of the U.S. Gulf. On the whole, the region is fairly busy and it is nowadays quite rare for a ship to be idle for more than a day or two, particularly if it can switch into the trades where there is activity. There are in fact several routes on which it is hard t...

Russian Chemical Co. bought exclusive rights to manufacture and market Rikos products, one of the countrys oldest grease brands, the company told Lube Report. Moscow-based chemicals producer Russian Chemical Co. (RCC) bought the license to market Rikos products from Rostov Engineering Lubricants Producer earlier this year. Last month our company resumed production of the lithium-based products such as Litol-24, Ciatim-201 and Ls-1P, company spokesman Nikolay Kochurkov told Lube Report. Under th...

SINGAPORE – Demand for higher quality lubricants is rising fast in China, the worlds largest lubricants market. At the same time, nearly every car owner there is a first-time car buyer with no experience of maintenance, so workshops are scrambling to instill loyalty and keep cars returning for oil changes. In China, end user attitudes are being defined today, Mike McCabe, Lubrizols Asia Pacific marketing manager, told the ICIS Asian Base Oils & Lubricants Conference here last week. In...

Russian oil major Lukoil acquired Austrian energy group OMVs lubricants business, in a bid to become a key player in the European lubricants market. The transaction is expected to close by the end of this year. Terms were not disclosed. Under the deal, LLK-International bought OMVs lubricant sales and distribution operations across nine countries in West, Central and Southeast Europe (Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria). The deal also inc...

Ineos Oligomers plans to build a new linear alpha olefin unit in the United States by late 2016 and expand its Canadian LAO unit in 2014, partly driven by demand for high performance automotive lubricants. It is our intention to build a new world scale LAO unit on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Bob Learman, CEO of League City, Texas-based Ineos Oligomers, said in a June 27 news release. The unit will have an initial capacity of 350,000 metric tons, and like our existing units, it can be b...

State-run Petrleo de Venezuela S.A. announced it will produce 6,500 barrels per day of API Group II base oil at its Amuay refinery with an estimated 2019 startup date, using technologies licensed from Chevron Lummus Global. CLG did not provide capital for the project, but will license its proprietary Isodewaxing and Isofinishing technologies, which it will help PdVSA implement as a crucial element of Group II production. The Amuay refinery currently produces 1,250 b/d of Group I oil. Amuay is...