The United Auto Workers and the United Steelworkers of America yesterday sued U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, seeking to force the federal government to set more stringent limits on employee exposure to metalworking fluids. In filing the Oct. 21 suit in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, the unions complained that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration – part of the Labor Department – has for the past decade ignored calls to reduce caps on oil mist exposure pe...

The Royal Dutch/Shell Group and Qatar Petroleum signed an agreement Monday to build a 140,000-barrel-per-day gas-to-liquids refinery – a plant that could become the first large-scale plant to produce GTL base oils. Shell said it plans to invest U.S. $5 billion in the project, which includes development of a Qatari natural gas block. The refinery will be built in two stages in Ras Laffan, Qatar, with operations beginning in 2008 or 2009. Shell said the plant will produce primarily naphtha a...

The fiscal quarter ended Sept. 30 yielded quite different results for two lubricant industry heavies. Valvoline closed out its best fiscal year with fourth quarter operating income that was 29 percent higher than the same period a year ago. Lubrizol Corp., meanwhile, saw its third quarter earnings drop 33 percent year-to-year. Valvoline parent company Ashland Inc., which begins its fiscal year Oct. 1, reported yesterday that the automotive consumer products marketer had record operating income o...