There has not been a great deal of activity in any market this week. Europe is perhaps slightly out in front compared to Asia, where the lunar holidays are about to commence, and the United States, which is stifled due to a shortage of workable space. U.S. Gulf It is pretty much a re-run of last week in the Americas. The trans-Pacific routes from the U.S. Gulf are largely full for the next couple of weeks, and since the cargo receivers are beginning to wrap things up prior to the lunar holidays ...

The National Advertising Division urged BP Lubricants USA to rescind a recent commercial that claims BPs Castrol Edge motor oil is superior to ExxonMobils Mobil 1 motor oil, saying the ad falsely disparages Mobil 1 on the basis of torture testing that lacks consumer relevance. The video advertisement, viewable here, depicts two Dodge Challengers in a torture test, in which each is loaded with 1,600 pounds and run on a dynamometer at 75 miles per hour on a seven percent incline. After five days, ...

In a sometimes intense session at the 19th Colloquium Tribology at the Technische Akademie Esslingen in Germany last week, representatives from Lubrizol and ExxonMobil debunked the value of the Brugger Test for evaluating the antiwear performance of hydraulic fluids. Lubrizols Alan Barber explained that the Brugger Test was introduced in the 1980s by hydraulic press manufacturer Mueller Weingarten to assess the load-carrying capacity of oils. It eventually gained status as a DIN (German Institut...

BP agreed to sell its aviation turbine oil business assets to Eastman Chemical Co. for an undisclosed amount, both companies announced yesterday. The deal, expected to close in the second quarter of 2014, includes BPs aviation turbine oil manufacturing, blending and packaging operations in Linden, N.J., and laboratory equipment in Naperville, Ill. Eastman will also acquire BPs aviation oil product formulations and customer contracts, which include long-term deals with global commercial airlines....

Ashlands Valvoline business posted increases in operating income and sales for the quarter ending Dec. 31, while base oil refiner S-Oil reported a strong increase in operating income and a slight decline in sales, compared to year-earlier results. Last year brought improved sales revenues and volumes for transformer oil rerefiner Hydrodec, compared to 2012. Valvoline Ashland Consumer Markets (Valvoline) posted operating income of $75 million during the companys first fiscal quarter, which ended ...

Russian oil major Lukoil recently signed lubricants supply contracts with a number of business and government customers in northern Russia, Sweden, Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia. Under the deal between Lukoil Lubricants Oy (the companys Finland lube arm) and Norilsk Nickel, a mining and smelting company, Lukoil will supply over 1,250 metric tons of industrial lubes for mining vehicles and manufacturing equipment during the course of 2014. The oil major will supply the Russian metallurgical gia...

SKF plans to build new technical centers in Sweden and the Netherlands to perform advanced product development and testing for lubrication systems and services as well as for bearings, sales and engineering. The Gothenburg, Sweden-based company said that two centers together will support its five technology platforms – bearings, seals, mechatronics, lubrication systems and services. Mechatronics is the combination of mechanical engineering, computing, and electronics, as used in the design...