Paul Waterman became CEO of Castrol and senior executive vice president of BP Lubricants July 1, succeeding Mike Johnson, who will retire at the end of 2013. According to a July 11 announcement, Waterman has run the Australia and New Zealand Fuels Value Chain since 2010. After joining Castrol in 1994, he spent 11 years in the lubricants business out of his 20 years downstream experience in the United Kingdom, United States and Australasia. He was vice president of the automotive Americas region...

SK Lubricants, Pertamina, and Patra SK signed an agreement to study the potential for API Group II base oil production at Pertaminas 8,600 barrels per day Group I refinery in Cilacap, Indonesia. With the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, the three companies have agreed to implement a Group II feasibility study, according to a Pertamina press release. The study will take into account the technical production aspects as well as market and economic factors of producing Group II base oil ...

The U.S. metalworking fluids industry is waiting to learn how the United States will regulate medium- and long-chain chlorinated paraffins. Chlorinated paraffins have been the target of regulation for some time, and according to Neil Canter of Chemical Solutions, Willow Grove, Pa., regulatory activity is apt to continue for some time with no clear resolution in sight. He summed up recent developments in the United States and Canada at the STLE annual meeting in May. In September 2009, the U.S....

Chevron Lubricants added a third storage facility for API Group II base oil in Europe, in Eastham, England. The company currently has Group II storage facilities in Antwerp, Belgium, and Hamburg, Germany. The Eastham facility will carry Group II grades 100R, 220R, 600R and Group II +, 110RLV. The terminal is fully operational now, Alan Outhwaite, Chevron Lubricants base oil business development manager, told Lube Report. Outhwaite said the Eastham location was appealing from a logistics stand...

SINGAPORE – Chinas finished lubricant demand declined from 2011 to 2012, Kline & Co.s Li Wang told the ICIS Asia Base Oils Conference. This caused base oil demand to contract as well and presaged shifts in the global base oil market. The picture in China is still hazy, Milind Phadke, energy practice director for Kline, explained to Lube Report. What we know for sure is that the first three quarters of 2012 saw contraction from 2011 lubricant consumption levels. Depending on how much re...

Singapore Lube Park – a joint venture among Shell, Sinopec and Total – yesterday announced it will build and operate facilities in southwestern Singapore by 2015 to benefit each partners adjacent lubricant and grease manufacturing plants. The joint venture claimed the lube park concept is the first of its kind in the lubricants industry. It will cover operations of shared facilities, including an import and export jetty, common pipelines, infrastructure and exclusive storage facilit...