Volume 2 Issue 35

Gulf Oil India Hitched to IDL Industries

Gulf Oil Indias parent company, Hinduja Group, announced last week that it has completed the merger of the lubricant business with its sister company, explosives manufacturer IDL Industries. Officials said the new entity, Gulf Oil Corp. Ltd., will better utilize research facilities, as well as marketing, purchasing and other back office resources. Gulf is very well established in the metros and at the district level, Corporate Communications Vice President Nina Mamnani said. IDL, because it serv...

Global Grease Production Drops

Global grease production fell nearly 6 percent from 2000 to 2001, totaling just over 1.5 billion pounds last year, according to the National Lubricating Grease Institute. The only bright spot was the Peoples Republic of China, where total reported grease production increased more than 14 percent, to over 178 million pounds. In North America, which supplies a third of the worlds grease, production plummeted 10.5 percent; in Europe it declined 2.6 percent. There are no huge shocks in the data, sai...

Senate Bill Would Protect Lube Distributors

Eight years after it was promised, the U.S. Senate has received a proposal that would afford lubricant distributors the same rights as fuel distributors in dealing with their suppliers. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., submitted a bill last month that would bring lube distributors under the Petroleum Marketing Practices Act. An industry trade group said the action would be especially welcome during a time when the industry has been unsettled by merger after merger. Whenever you have these mergers, the s...