HOUSTON – Base oil production in China has for decades belonged almost exclusively to PetroChina and Sinopec, two of the communist nations large state-owned oil companies. Now the third major player is preparing to enter the fray. An official from state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) told an industry conference here last week that it plans to build a 400,000-metric-ton naphthenic plant to open in 2007. The company sees opportunity in the naphthenic business, both at home a...

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — ASTM’s Heavy Duty Engine Oil Classification Panel, which is responsible for moving forward the new PC-10 heavy-duty engine oil quality upgrade, met here last month in an increasingly tense environment. The amount of time remaining to meet diesel engine builders’ October 2006 deadline for having new oils licensed and available in the marketplace has come up sharply against the realities of getting new tests accepted into the category and completing candidate...

Italian lubricant supplier FL Selenia SpA is changing hands again. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. has agreed to buy it from Vestar Capital Partners in a deal valued at 835 million (U.S. $1 billion), the private equity firms announced Monday. KKR is the third investment firm to buy Selenia in the past five years, but it has deeper pockets than any of the previous owners. KKR officials said they plan to tap its resources to help Selenia management reach ambitious growth targets. We intend to su...

HOUSTON- The American Petroleum Institutes Lubricants Committee last week heard the outcome of its 2004 engine oil aftermarket audit program, which checks on the quality of API-licensed engine oils sold in the retail marketplace worldwide. Nearly a dozen licensed products were nonconforming and flunkedAPIs scrutiny in some way, the Nov. 7 meeting was told – including two which were so bad they could cause damage to vehicle engines. API collected 611 engine oil samples for auditing in 2004,...

After a three-year slump, the U.S. lubricant industry rebounded in 2004 with sales volumes rising 1.8 percent, the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association reported last week. Last years performance, documented in the associations 2004 Report on U.S. Lubricating Oil and Wax Sales, followed declines of 3.3 percent, 0.4 percent and 3.6 percent in 2001, 2002 and 2003, respectively. The report, released Nov. 9, pegged the U.S. lubricant market at 2.48 billion gallons. That total sales figure...

Fuchs Petrolub AG and Afton Chemical Corp. both posted bumper third quarter performances despite continuing pressure from rising raw material costs. Fuchs net income jumped 130 percent from the same period of 2004, thanks to a combination of increased sales, cost containment and a land sale. Afton rode a surge in sales to an 85 percent rise in operating profit. Fuchs announced yesterday that it had net income of 24.6 million (U.S. $28.8 million) for the three months ended Sept. 30, up from 10.7 ...