Volume 1 Issue 2

Tribology Congress Bound for USA

The World Tribology Congress will cross the Atlantic in 2005, as the International Tribology Council has voted to hold the meetings third edition in Washington, D.C. The council selected the U.S. capital last week during the second congress in Vienna, after hearing a presentation by the Society for Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers and the American Society of Manufacturing Engineers, co-hosts of the 2005 meeting. We think its great news that the organizations will be able to bring the event...

Survey Spotlights Sales Salaries

Results of a U.S. lubricant industry salary survey paint a typical sales and marketing professional as a 46-year-old 16-year veteran who earns approximately $76,000 a year. The survey, conducted for the second consecutive year by LubesnGreases Magazine, also shows sales execs employed by lube manufacturers making an average of $23,000 more than their counterparts at lube distributors. As was the case last year, the 2001 survey showed that salaries tend to increasein tandemwith the number of peo...

FTC Blesses Chevron-Texaco Merger

Chevron and Texaco have cleared the major regulatory hurdle to their $34.4 billion merger and have now committed Texaco to divesting its interests in the Equilon and Motiva partnerships. Texacos partners, Shell Oil Co. and Saudi Aramco, appear to be the leading candidates to acquire those interests. In announcements Monday of a consent order from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Chevron and Texaco said they expect the two companies to become one Oct. 10, the day after scheduled votes for share...

Gulf Refineries Remain Open After Attacks

Contrary to some media reports, base oil refiners said operations at facilities along the Gulf of Mexico were not altered in the wake of Tuesdays terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. At least two news organizations reported Tuesday that Gulf refineries might be closed as security precautions, either at the request of the federal government or of their own accord. But several major refiners said this morning that that was not the case. We have not heard of any such request by the fe...