ORourke Petroleum Products and Solutions announced this month its acquisition of oil jobber Commercial Lubricants Dallas division. The deal comes 11 years after ORourke bought Commercials Houston operations. These deals were both with the same company, but we made them for two different reasons, ORourke President and Chief Operating Officer Mushahid Khan said. We bought the Houston business in 95 because they had a few key accounts that we wanted. In the case of [the Dallas division], it is part...

Most everyone agrees recycling lubricants is a good idea, but even those involved in such efforts dont always get along. Canadian recycler Newalta Corp. has sued the British Columbia Used Oil Management Association claiming the latter owes it $86,000 (U.S. $78,000) in handling fees for oil that it collected. Newalta and other collecting companies have also fought the formation of recycling programs like the one that BCUOMA administers. Calgary-based Newalta is an environmental services provider ...

Iowas governor signed into law yesterday financial incentives that encourage electric utilities to use transformer oils made using soybeans. Proponents said that annual sales of as much as 1 million gallons of fluid could be at stake. This could have a significant impact in Iowa, said Luis del Valle, global marketing director for Cargill Industrial Oils and Lubricants, which manufactures soy-based transformer oils. There are a couple big public utilities in the state, and then there are numerous...

Most of the Citgo operations that remain in Tulsa, Okla., are following the rest of the company to Houston. A lubricants laboratory will not, at least in the foreseeable future. On Thursday Citgo announced it will relocate approximately 350 positions to Houston. The company already has approximately 700 employees in Houston, having moved its headquarters there from Tulsa beginning in 2004. The activities involved in the new move include pipeline control, information technology and several other...

Indias Bharat Petroleum Corp. on Saturday christened a new base oil plant at its refinery in Mumbai with capacity to make 3,500 barrels per day of Group II-plus stocks. Observers called the project a big step for Indias lubricant market, saying it will help fill a shortage of highly refined oils. Currently, Group II and Group II-plus base oils are imported into the country from South Korea, the United States and Singapore, said Geeta Agashe, director of Kline and Co.s Petroleum and Energy Practi...