Volume 13 Issue 44

SSY Base Oil Shipping Report

The U.S. market has cooled over the past week while Asian demand has continued upwards. Europe is patchy, with some routes looking brighter and others dropping off. U.S. Gulf The transatlantic eastbound market is less active this week. Styrene has become almost invisible and ethanol is mostly tentative. Consequently, some prompt space has opened up on the route and this has caused rate discounting to the tune of a couple of dollars for parcels up to about 5,000 tons. Equally, larger lots remain...

Hydrodec, Essar Partner on Rerefining

Hydrodec Group will collaborate with Essar Oil UK on a joint venture oil rerefining center at Stanlow, U.K., including a rerefinery with API Group II+ and III base oil capacity by 2016.Announced Monday by Hydrodec, the collaboration would combine Essar Oil UKs existing infrastructure, expertise and operating capability with Hydrodecs proprietary technology and feedstock from Hydrodecs OSS Group subsidiary, which collects used oil. The agreements heads of terms are non-binding, and the collaborat...

Calumet Clears the Air with EPA

In a settlement with the Environmental Protection Agency, Calumet Shreveport Lubricant and Waxes has agreed to pay a $326,000 civil penalty and to spend at least $248,000 to expand its airborne toxins monitoring system around its Shreveport, La., facility.During an unannounced inspection of the Indianapolis, Ind.-based specialty chemical companys Shreveport, La., facility in August 2011, the EPA found that the plant was in violation of nine Clean Air Act directives. Lingering effects from an Oct...

Better Oils in Irans Future

DUBAI, U.A.E. – Sepahan Oil predicts a bright future for Irans base oil industry, thanks to the countrys young and growing population, high demand for cars, planned economic development, and success in finding new trading partners in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia.Sepahan Oil Co.s Mojtaba Arabi Anaraki, a dewaxing expert, gave an overview of Irans base oil and finished lubricant markets at the ICIS Middle Eastern Base Oils & Lubricants Conference here last month.Iran cou...

U.K. Gets Lube Watchdog

BRUSSELS – The United Kingdom Lubricants Association recently launched Verification of Lubricant Specifications, a new membership organization designed to monitor and enforce the standards of the country’s lubricants market.VLSs mission is to protect consumers and end-users from purchasing lubricant products with incorrect product specification and performance claims, UKLAs director general Rod Pesch told the 2013 UEIL Congress. Membership is open to end-users, equipment producers an...

Calumet Hits 3Q Speed Bump

Calumet Specialty Products Partners reported a $19 million operating loss for the quarter ending Sept. 30, down from $98.8 million operating income a year earlier. Sales reached $1.5 billion, up 25 percent from $1.2 billion in 2012s third quarter.A significant decline in both fuel and specialty products margins, compared to the prior year period, adversely impacted the partnerships third quarter performance. Sales prices for gasoline, lubricating oils and asphalt did not keep pace with a rapid e...

Tanzania Enforces Lube Standards

The Tanzania Bureau of Standards has intensified efforts to rid the East African country of substandard lubricants but has more work to do, some experts say.On Feb. 1, 2012, the bureau implemented the Pre-Shipment Verification of Conformity (PVoC) regulation in partnership with three global inspection and certification services firms: SGS, Intertek, and Bureau Veritas. The regulation mandates that the three inspection firms certify that every lubricant product, including base oils and finished l...