Phillips Petroleum Co. has made its stable of motor oils a little less crowded by consolidating the Kendall brands into a single product line. Officials said product lines were integrated to make operations more efficient and that they will now pitch Kendall GT-1 oils to racing teams and average motorists, alike. It is somewhat of an effort to straddle the fence, said Steve Tarbox, product team manager for the Lubricants Division of Phillips 66 Co. GT-1 is going to be economical enough for peopl...

Sinopec, Chinas second-biggest oil company, has integrated its lubricants operations to cope with foreign competition that is expected to stiffen as barriers to trade are reduced. The company pooled several separate businesses to form Sinopec Lube Oil Co., which will have initial sales of 1.2 million tons per year. Sinopec officials said the new business would be better positioned to take advantage of well recognized brand names. Some observers expressed skepticism about the companys ability to ...

More than one out of five API-licensed engine oils was off-spec last year, according to the American Petroleum Institutes 2001 worldwide engine oil quality audit. API collected and tested more than 600 samples of licensed engine oils, including both bulk and bottle samples. Sixteen percent were found to have marginal deviations, and 5 percent (30 oils) had significant deviations. According to API, significant deviations are so far outside compliance limits that they could potentially raise short...