Volume 6 Issue 38

BV Oil Acquires Grimsley

Miami oil jobber BV Oil Co. last month purchased Grimsley Oil Co., of Wauchula, Fla., to further its expansion into the western part of the state. The transaction includes Grimsleys lubricant business, which carries Chevron products, and a bulk lube packaging plant in Arcadia, Fla. BV sells Amalie lubricants, as well as fuels, mostly in southeast Florida, said Mark Radosevich, president of PetroProperties and Finance LLC, a Coral Gables, Fla., firm which represented Grimsley in the deal. BV had ...

Petronas Breaks Ground in Melaka

Malaysias Petronas held a groundbreaking ceremony today commemorating the start of construction of a base oil plant at its refinery in Melaka, Malaysia. The plant, which is scheduled to open in 2008, is designed for capacity to make 6,500 barrels per day of Group III stocks. The company has already begun to establish a marketing team and distribution network, and officials indicated the company will pitch its oils for use in low-viscosity passenger car motor oils. The viscosity index is quite hi...

Sepahan Mulls Group III Project

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates- An official with Sepahan Oil Co. said last week that the Iranian refiner is conducting a feasibility study to consider adding Group III capacity to its base oil plant in Esfahan, Iran. Sepahan expects to decide within a few months whether to undertake a project. Sepahan Commercial Manager Jamshid Rostampour referred to the feasibility study during a Sept. 12 presentation here at the ICIS Middle Eastern Base Oils and Lubricants Conference. He said management is consid...

Lubrizol Bellies Up to Food-grade Lubes

Conventional wisdom has it that growth in the worldwide lubricants market will be 2 percent or less over the next five years, observes Saurabh Lawate. The global market for food-grade lubricants, however, will see better than double that rate of growth, expanding 4 percent to 5 annually, he predicted. The United States is by far the biggest market for any incidental-food-contact lube products, said Lawate, who is global commercial manager for industrial specialty products at Lubrizol Corp. in Wi...

Saudis, U.A.E. Carry Weight in Middle East

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates- The Middle East is a region of 186 million people spread across 13 countries, but two nations – the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia – provide much of the lubricants that keep its vehicles and machinery running. The important role played by the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia was evident from presentations given here Sept. 12 and 13 at the ICIS Middle Eastern Base Oils and Lubricants Conference. Together the two countries have 22 blending plants with capacit...

SPI Buys Two Big Distributors

Rapidly growing SPI Petroleum LLC announced yesterday that it has bought two large fuel and lubricant distributors – the parent company of Rancho Dominguez, California-based General Petroleum, and Canyon State Oil Co., of Phoenix. The acquisitions give SPI and its affiliates annual revenues of more than $3 billion, making it one of the largest petroleum marketers in the United States. SPI and its affiliates now operate 37 lubricant blending and packaging plants across the nation and sell a...