Adrian Brown is away this week.

In the few short years since 2011, the Middle East has gone from being an importer of base oils to a major export center, especially of API Group III products, points out Gerard Heaton, sales and marketing manager of Saudi Aramco Base Oil Co., Luberef. The Middle East has quite a healthy appetite for finished lubricants, too, he added. The regions total annual demand is in the range of 2.7 million to 2.8 million metric tons of lubricants, and demand is expected to grow about 1 to 1.5 percent a y...

Two high-level executives resigned from Calumet Specialty Products Partners L.P.s general partner last month – Jennifer Straumins and Tim Barnhart – according to company filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Straumins, executive vice president of strategy and development, resigned on March 31, Calumet Specialty Products Partners L.P. disclosed in an April 2 SEC filing, which gave no reason for her resignation. She is the daughter of company co-founder F. William G...

Vivo Energy reached an agreement with a local investor, CH Group Ltd., to take an 8-percent equity stake in Vivos Ghanaian holdings in order to meet an oil marketing company license requirement. Vivo Energy Ghana Holdings BV and CH Group Ltd. have today announced that CH Group Ghana Ltd. has agreed to purchase 8 percent of the shares in Vivo Energy Ghana Ltd. from Vivo Energy Ghana Holdings BV for an undisclosed amount, the companies said in a press statement. Amsterdam-based Vivo Energy took ov...

KMG Chemicals Inc. announced last week that it will acquire valve lubricant manufacturer Valves Inc. of Texas, known as Val-Tex, for $23.5 million by the end of this month. With both companies based in Houston, KMG said it has followed Val-Tex for many years, and believes both Val-Tex and the valve sealants and lubricants market it serves are attractive and profitable. The industrial valve lubricants market is large and highly fragmented, KMGs Investor Relations Manager Eric Glover told Lube Rep...

Kazakhstan reduced export duties on lubricants, crude oil and other petroleum products, and identified the lowest acceptable crude oil price that still remains profitable for the government. The country reduced its lubricant export tax by U.S. $113 per metric ton to $60/t, part of a broader action to reset oil sector duties in order to bring costs to export from Kazakhstan in line with international prices. The duty on crude was reduced $80/t to $60/t, while duties on heavy distillates, gas oil,...