Volume 15 Issue 3

SSY Base Oil Shipping Report

Europe has overtaken the U.S. as the most prolific and most active of the three main regions. Asia is a poor third with virtually all routes within Asia showing signs of a slowdown. U.S. Gulf Styrene is perhaps the main export grade as far as the U.S. is concerned. It underpins the transatlantic eastbound route, where rates are reported to be rising. Parcels in the amount of 5,000 metric tons were fetching high $40s-$50 per ton at the start of the year, and they are now nudging up into the low $...

Four More Majors Cut Lube Prices

Four more major oil companies notified U.S. customers of finished lubricant price cuts effective from mid-January through mid-February, as the recent drop in crude oil and base oil prices continues to impact the market. Most companies indicated in their notices that the price increases could fall outside the specified amount, depending on the product. Some notices cited decreasing raw material costs impacts on manufacturing and distribution costs as a key factor. Citgo informed customers it wou...

Russian Base Oils to Gradually Modernize

BERLIN – Russian base oil producers envision modernizing their plants to add 1.6 million metric tons per year of API Group II and III capacity by the early 2020s, according to an industry insider. During the next 10 years refiners will switch to hydrocatalytic processes and abandon the old way of manufacturing base oil. Some, such as Lukoils and Rosnefts Nizhny Novgorod and Novokuibyshevsk refineries are planning to close their old installations that use conventional processes of dewaxing ...

Scottish Blender Booted from VLS

The United Kingdom Lubricants Associations program for verifying lubricant quality suspended the membership of Ferguson & Menzies last month after review of one of its Opus-branded motor oils. In its anonymized review process, UKLAs Verification of Lubricant Specifications program upheld a complaint against Ferguson & Menzies Opus-branded Synopus Nova Ultra 5W-30 motor oil. The product had mutually exclusive claims of meeting ACEA (the European Automobile Manufacturers Association) eng...

Clean Harbors Shifts Focus to Blending

Clean Harbors announced plans to create a division dedicated to finished lubricants within its rerefining and recycling segment, and to appoint Jerry Correll as the divisions head. In yesterdays strategic review announcement, Norwell, Mass.-based Clean Harbors said that the new business will accelerate its shift in focus to blended products, which has been its priority since acquiring used oil recycler and rerefiner Safety-Kleen in December 2012. We hope to realize higher returns from this busin...

Shell Opens Middle East GTL Base Oil Hub

Shell recently opened a gas-to-liquid base oil hub in Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates, making its first delivery in late December. It is the companys fourth GTL base storage hubs, alongside existing ones in in Houston, Hamburg and Hong Kong. Shell noted the Middle East hub is on an industrial site in Jebel Ali, about 30 kilometers from Dubai, geographically centered in the region and close to markets with growing demand for finished lubricants. The site is connected with a jetty and road g...

Annual Revenue up for Hydrodec

Transformer oil rerefiner Hydrodec Group posted $54 million in revenues for the 2014 fiscal year, up 35 percent from the previous year. In its trading update Jan. 19, the company said it expects oil sale volumes for 2014 to increase by 26 percent to 48.6 million liters, up from 38.3 million liters. The year included a full year of trading by United Kingdom-based used lube oil collector OSS – acquired by Hydrodec in 2013 – and oil sales in the United States. The company noted the used...