Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division will pay a $1.2 million civil penalty to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under a consent agreement announced Friday to resolve alleged violations of the Toxic Substances Control Act for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), including mishandling of older transformer oils that contained the banned chemical. Lubricants containing PCBs were once widely used in transformers, compressors and other machines mainly because of their fire-retardant properties. ...

Sales and marketing managers who work for U.S. lubricant manufacturers earn an average of almost $123,500 a year, according to the latest Lubricants Industry Salary Survey conducted by LubesnGreases magazine. Thats one-third more than their counterparts working at lube distributors, who said they earn an average of $93,000. The LubesnGreases 2008 Lubricants Industry Salary Survey looks at how compensation varies by type and size of company, geographic region, length of time in the job, and numbe...

American Refining Group has acquired Clinton Petroleum Co., a crude oil brokerage and trucking firm in Randolph, Ohio. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Clinton handles the Pennsylvania-grade crude oil that ARG uses to make base oils. Vice President of Business Development John Robinson said that with Clinton Petroleum on the verge of going under or being sold, ARG acquired it so it would not lose a partner whose services were valuable in working with crude oil producers in Ohio. We a...

Calumet Specialty Products reported a steep drop in earnings for the third quarter, Quaker Chemical saw an increase in quarterly earnings, Milacrons Industrial Fluids segments third-quarter earnings edged down, while Fuchs Petrolub posted a gain for 2008s first nine months, all compared to the year-earlier periods. Calumet Specialty Products Partners LP on Nov. 5 reported a $12.5 million net loss for the third quarter, compared to net income of $9.5 million in 2007s third quarter. The refiner s...

Industrija Nafte, known as INA, recently closed Croatias only base oil plant, a Group I facility in Rijeka with capacity to produce 105,000 metric tons per year (about 2,100 barrels per day). The company said it shuttered the plant in August as part of a broader plan to modernize a nearby refinery. The base oil plant is located in the Rijeka suburb of Mlaka, while the fuels refinery is located in the citys Urinj district. INA, Croatias national oil company in Zagreb, is modernizing the latter f...

Although change was a buzzword on election day, a jury last week voted that a change in grease brands hurt an Iowa fire hydrant manufacturer, whose lawsuit contended corrosion occurred because of a switch from Citgos Mystic brand food grade grease to a Chevron food machinery grease that contains calcium acetate. McWane Inc., which does business as Clow Valve Co. – it manufactures, assembles and distributes fire hydrants throughout the United States – in June 2006 filed a civil conspi...