Hatco Corp. is partnering with a raw material supplier to build a neo polyol ester plant in Oberhausen, Germany. The Fords, N.J., company is building the 7,000-metric-ton-per-year facility in a joint venture with Celanese Chemicals Europe GmbH. Neo polyol esters are used as base stocks for synthetic lubricants in refrigeration, automotive, aviation and industrial applications, as well as in hydraulic fluids. According to Hatco, the Oberhausen plant is expected to supply customers in Western Euro...

The Valvoline Co. has introduced a heavy-duty engine oil that can extend drain intervals, it claims, as high as 100,000 miles. Officials acknowledge, however, that intervals for new low-emissions engines will probably be far shorter. A March 1 news release announcing Premium Blue Extreme states that it is capable of six-figure intervals in select engines under certain operating conditions. Asked to specify those conditions, Director of Commercial Brands and Technical Services Bill Runkle said th...

Aircraft security and safety concerns grabbed headlines these past few months, while question marks loomed over the airline industrys very viability. Aviation grease, a seemingly fringe aspect of aircraft maintenance, has a crucial bearing onequipment life and health, and is drawing increasing attention worldwide, Terry Dicken of U.K.-based Global Lubricants told the recent NLGI-India Chapter conference in Bangalore India. Today, though aircraft and associated equipment have become technological...

U.S. lube oil refining capacity has slipped to 210,400 barrels per day, a decline of more than 6 percent since January 2001, and 9 percent off 1997’s peak of 231,100 b/d. That’s according to the 2002 edition of the Lubricating Oil and Wax Capacities Report from the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association. The report, to be released at the group’s Annual Meeting in San Antonio next week, is kept close at hand by many lube executives, says ExxonMobil’s Mitch Hindman...

NEW ORLEANS-The old Equilon Lubricants business may have shrunk when Shell bought out partner Texaco last month. But Shell officials have ambitious plans to grow it into the most profitable lubes business in the United States. Shells plans, unveiled in a series of meetings with distributors over the past five weeks, call for large-scale growth in a variety of areas. Officials say a major focus will be in the industrial segment, where the company is introducing hundreds of new products. It hopes ...