Volume 13 Issue 3

Shell, Hyundai JV to Make Group II

Shell Petroleum Co. Ltd. and Hyundai Oilbank yesterday confirmed plans for a new 650,000 metric tons per year API Group II base oil plant in Daesan, South Korea, to be fully operational in the second half of 2014. Hyundai Oilbank announced the project in February 2012. A joint venture between the two companies – Hyundai and Shell Base Oil Co., Ltd. – will manage commissioning, start-up and operation of the plant. Hyundai Oilbank has a 60 percent share and Shell a 40 percent share in...

PQIA Slams Substandard Motor Oils

The Petroleum Quality Institute of America (PQIA) warns consumers not to buy multiple lubricants that prey on the people least able to afford them. The most recent alert, issued Jan. 7, warns of two motor oils in the Mid-West, Super XXX sold by New World Sales of Midlothian, Ill., and Liberty Gold Plus SMO sold by Pinnacle Brands of Chicago because they could potentially damage engines. Pinnacle Brands is not related to either to Pinnacle Oil of Indianapolis or Pinnacle Resources of Pine Bluff,...

CNOOC Adding Group II Plant

China National Offshore Oil Co. recently signed a contract to license Chevron Lummus Globals technology for a 400,000 metric tons per year API Group II and III base oil plant that is expected to start up around 2016 in Taizhou, China. In a statement, Chevron Lummus Global said it will provide the process design, catalysts and technical services for the Taizhou plant, which will use CLGs Isocracking, Isodewaxing and Isofinishing technologies to produce Group II and III base oils. CNOOC now has ...

Turkey's Sea Horse Goes Mega Lube

Sea Horse Petrochemicals, one of Turkeys biggest lubricant marketers, recently broke ground on a new 600,000 tons per year blending plant, boasting it will be the biggest such production facility in Europe. Slated to be finished by 2015, the U.S. $140 million mega lubricant blending plant will be developed in a closed area spanning 85,000 square meters, and located in Gebze industrial center, 30 miles east of Istanbul. “The plant will be one of the five biggest lubricant plants in the wor...

ORourke Expands Reach in Texas

ORourke Petroleum recently acquired Penco Oil in East Texas. Both companies are Shell lubricants distributors. Mush Khan, president and chief operating officer of ORourke, noted the company is specifically interested in growing its lubricants business. Penco is a highly lubricants-focused company, so they added to our portfolio of lubricants, and allowed us to accelerate our existing organic growth in that business line, Khan told Lube Report. ORourke aims to become even more of a strategic pa...

Rosneft Starts 2013 Off Big

Rosneft, one of Russia’s biggest lubricants marketers, increased its supply of automotive lubricants in 2012 and recently introduced two key products, the company said. Russia’s biggest crude oil producer increased its supply to AvtoVAZ, one of Rosneft’s key customers, by 65 percent in 2012, compared to the year before, a plant’s spokesperson told Lube Report on Tuesday. The lubricants are being made at the Novokuibyshevsk lubricants and additives plant. “At this m...

SSY Base Oil Shipping Report

European markets continue to disappoint due to the lack of activity. U.S. volumes have improved slightly, but not enough to alter rates. Asia remains busy through the rest of January. U.S. Gulf of Mexico There were a number of large cargoes of aromatics quoted from the Gulf to the Far East over the past week, including 20,000 tons of paraxylene and another 20,000 tons of toluene. However, while demand may appear buoyant, the problem of actually securing enough material is the problem, and at l...