ExxonMobil Corp. said last week that it has agreed to sell stakes in fuel and lubricants businesses in several equatorial African nations to a subsidiary of Libyas state-owned oil company. The companies did not disclose terms of the deal, which includes four blending plants. The purchasing party is Tamoil Africa Holdings, which is based in Monaco and which serves as National Oil Corp. of Libyas arm for Africa outside of Libya. The transaction involves operations in Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire...

A Chicago-area start-up announced plans last week to become a collector and rerefiner of used lubricating oil and a marketer of lubricants made from that stream. Voyager Petroleum Inc. said it expects to complete acquisitions to create the basis for that business early next year. We should close on the first two acquisitions in January and get everything ramped up pretty quickly, President Sebastien DuFort told Lube Report yesterday. Based in Hinsdale, Ill., the company was previously named Voya...

Russian oil giant OAO LukOil said last week that it has completed the first phase of an eight-year project to double the capacity of its largest lubricant blending and packaging plant. The plant, located in Perm, Russia, has a new automated 3,000-ton storage facility. The Perm plant, part of a refining complex, currently has capacity to package 50,000 tons of lubes per year in cans ranging from 1 to 5 liters. The company said it plans to double that capacity before 2015, in order to accommodate ...

Shells lubricant business in the United States said yesterday that it has exercised an option to sell a lubricant blending plant in North Charleston, S.C., to Chevron. Contrary to a local newspaper report, SOPUS Products said it has no plans to close the facility. Shell acquired the option along with the plant when it bought out Texacos stake in the former Equilon Enterprises LLC, originally a U.S. downstream joint venture between Shell, Texaco and Saudi Refining Inc. Texaco had to sell its inte...

The United States lags well behind many European countries in the recycling of used lubricants, and the U.S. rate is unlikely to rise much without government action or industry advances. So concludes a recently released study by the U.S. Department of Energy. The 121-page report found that quality rerefining equipment is too expensive and returns too slim for the nation to turn significantly more used oil back into finished lubricants. The [rerefining] industry on its own has not found it econom...