BP last week announced a new name for its olefins and derivatives business, which it plans to spin off later this year. In preparation for that move, BP on Friday will establish a wholly owned subsidiary named Innovene. The new company will be based in Chicago, will have assets of more than $9 billion and annual sales of more than $15 billion, making it one of the worlds five largest chemical suppliers. It will employ more than 8,500 people at 26 major facilities around the globe. The company is...

Lubricant sales volumes in the United States leveled off in 2004, slipping a mere 0.5 percent after four consecutive years of significant declines, according to the latest data from the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association. Finished lubricant sales actually twitched up 0.4 percent from 2003. The nations overall demand for lubes wasdragged down by a sizable drop in consumption of process oils in 2004, compared to 2003. Released March 23, NPRAs Quarterly Index of Lubricant Sales for the...

BEIJING – Chinas appetite for high-quality base oils is about to take a giant leap forward, an official at Group III refiner SK Corp. predicted. As a result, Group III 4-centiStoke base stock, in demand for high-quality passenger car engine oils, will be extremely short in the Asian market before the arrival of gas-to-liquid base stocks at the end of the decade. Yea-Sun Yoon, general manager of Korean refiner SK Corp.s base oil business, told the Fuels & Lubes Asia Conference here on ...

Profits are picking up in the chemical industry, leading suppliers to plan increased investment in new manufacturing capacity, according to the results of a recent survey by the American Chemistry Council. It is an outlookthat should be welcomed by the lubricants industry and other customer segments, which have been strapped the past year by tightening availability of chemicals. But lubricant additive suppliers questioned whether their market will feel any relief. Chemical industry profits have ...