ChevronTexaco Corp. announced Monday that it is reorganizing its lubricants business and other downstream operations in an effort to cut costs. The company said the changes, scheduled to be completed by early next year, will generally shift downstream activities from a regional to a global structure. The companys lubes business – ChevronTexaco Global Lubricants – already has such a structure, created in 2001 after Chevrons merger with Texaco. A spokeswoman said yesterday that she did...

Lambent Technologies has a new home and Lubrizol Corp. another new product line, both the result of a three-way sale by chemical company BASF. The companies announced Monday that BASF has sold its Gurnee, Ill., specialty chemicals factory to Lambent, which will continue using the facility to produce plant-based esters, alkoxylates and silicones, mostly for surfactants. The plant will supply BASFs North American surfactant business under a toll manufacturing agreement. Lubrizol bought the silicon...

So much for speculation that American Refining Group is living on borrowed time. The mite-sized oil company this week announced the startup of an isomerization unit at its Bradford, Pa., refinery, sending a message that the company is not going away anytime soon. The unit is part of the refinerys fuel line and does not affect its base oil plant. Still, officials said they are upbeat about all of the companys operations, including lubricants. Moreover, they said they plan to announce additional p...

Hurricane Claudette came ashore in Texas yesterday, and washed outthe APILubricants Committee meeting that was scheduled for Houston today, aspokeswoman said. A conference call to cover the standards meeting agenda will be scheduled at a later date, the American Petroleum Institute advised members. At the moment, no face-to-face Lubricants Committee meetings are planned before the July 30 ILSAC/Oil meeting. The ILSAC/Oil group is awaiting APIs response toits proposed GF-4 gasoline engine oil upg...