Saudi Aramco signed memorandums of understanding in China to acquire a 9 percent stake in Zhejiang Petrochemicals 800,000 barrels-per-day refinery and petrochemical complex in Zhoushan and to invest in Zhejiang Energys fuel retail network.

The Saudi oil company also signed a joint venture agreement with defense and chemicals company Norinco Group and Panjin Sincen to develop a refining and petrochemical complex in the city of Panjin, Liaoning province, with capacity of 300,000 b/d. Aramco will supply up to 70 percent of the crude feedstock.

PIB Demand on the Rise

Market research and consultancy Kline & Co. estimated total polyisobutylene capacity reached 1.1 million to 1.2 million metric tons in 2018 and is expected to grow steadily until 2028, according to its report Business Outlook for Polyisobutylenes: Global Market Analysis and Opportunities. PIB applications include lubricant and fuel additives.

The Kline report found that the top-five PIB suppliers account for about 75 percent of global PIB capacity. These were Germanys BASF, South Korean petrochemicals company Daelim, TPC Group and Lubrizol from the United States, and the Shell Chemical-ExxonMobil Chemical JV additive company Infineum. At 35 to 40 percent of global PIB demand, North America is the largest consumer, followed by Western Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Capacity increases are underway after Saudi Aramco and partner Total signed a memorandum of understanding with Daelim to build a new PIB plant in Jubail, Saudi Arabia. Scheduled to come on stream in 2024, the plant will produce conventional and highly reactive PIB.

Europe Tackles Read-Across, Interchange

Europes lubricant industry has fallen far behind in the development of base oil interchange and viscosity grade read-across guidelines, having written almost none for the past two decades despite dramatic changes in base stocks and automotive engine oils.

That was the admission of an industry insider at the ICIS World Base Oils & Lubricants Conference in London on Feb. 22. He added, though, that industry groups are now working to remedy the situation and recently took the first steps toward providing these tools that can help lubricant suppliers cope with the growing complexity of engine oil specifications.

We are aligned and committed to progress base oil interchange and viscosity grade read-across guidelines for the collective industry as a whole, said Ari van de Ven, an executive committee member of the Technical Association of Europes Lubricant Industry, known as ATIEL, referring to a cooperative effort between that group and the Additive Technical Committee. We go slow [to date], but I think we have made quite some progress over the last few years, and hopefully we can accelerate.

Interchange and read-across guidelines are specific to certain tests and base oil API groups. European and North American specifications have extensive guidelines for Group I base stocks, which were developed in the 1990s. But while North American specs also have significant amounts of guidelines for Group II base stocks and lesser amounts for Group III, van de Ven, who works for Q8 Oils, explained that European specs have almost none.

The lack of European guidelines is somewhat eased by the inclusion of ASTM engine tests, developed in North America, in oil sequences of the European Automobile Manufacturers Association. Those ASTM tests do have interchange guidelines. Still, guidelines for the Coordinating European Councils tests have been sorely missed, van de Ven said, as the number of oil categories has increased (ACEA oil sequence categories have increased from eight to 14 since 1996), the number and expense of engine tests rose, the amount of base stocks increased and as the engine oil market shifted to lower-viscosity grades.

Enocs Full Schedule

It has been a busy time for Emirates National Oil Co. The company signed an agreement with Houston-based oilfield services and engineering company BHGE to develop a real-time lubricant monitoring system called VitalyX. The system will be designed for use in multiple industries using large machinery to detect lubricant properties in real time.

Enoc also entered into a partnership with Indian Oil Corp. to a develop cylinder oil compliant with the International Maritime Organizations 2020 0.5 percent sulfur cap for marine fuels.

Finally, the U.A.E. company signed a JV agreement with Proserv to establish Enoc Misr to market and distribute Enocs range of commercial, industrial and marine lubricants in Egypt.

Lanxess All Action

Specialty chemicals company Lanxess increased production of its Additin RC 4000 series of corrosion inhibitor additives by 15 percent after a debottlenecking project. The series includes calcium sulfonate, carboxylate, succinic acid and phosphoric acid-based products used in power transmission oils, industrial oils, metalworking fluids, anti-corrosion oils and greases.

French chemicals distributor Safic-Alcan will begin distributing Lanxess biocides Preventol and Biochek in France. Biocides have numerous industrial applications, including use in metalworking fluids.

Lanxess also made Petrico, a British supplier of fuel and lubricant additives, its distribution partner in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands.

ASTM Adopts Biobased Grease Test

ASTM International approved as a standard a new small-scale oxidation test that provides more accurate results for biobased greases. The approval culminates a long effort by the Biobased Greases Working Group – a joint effort between the European Lubricating Grease Institute and the National Lubricating Grease Institute.

The standard is ASTM D8206-18, Standard Test Method for Oxidation Stability of Lubricating Greases – Rapid Small-Scale Oxidation Test. The new procedure is a modification of ASTM D7545 specially adapted for grease testing because previous methods for evaluating properties of mineral oil based greases did not consistently provide satisfactory results for biobased products.

The new method measures the net change in pressure resulting from consumption of oxygen by oxidation and the gain in pressure due to formation of volatile oxidation by-products. The test method may be used for
quality control to indicate batch-to-batch uniformity. It doesnt predict the stability of grease stored in containers for long periods, nor the stability of grease films on bearings and motor parts, the standards organization noted.

ASTM said that the induction period as determined under the conditions of the test method can be used to indicate oxidation stability. The test method can be used for research and development, quality control and specification purposes. However, the standards organization noted that no correlation has been determined between the results of the test method and service performance.

On Site

Total Tanzania opened a new $20 million blending plant with capacity to produce 15,000 tons per year of lubricants, greases and coolants.

Castrol India plans to expand its Silvassa blending plant by 50 percent by 2021 to adapt to the changing landscape of the Indian lubricant industry and to meet growing demand, a company official said.

Personnel Column

ExxonMobil Fuels and Lubricants base stocks planning manager X. B. Cox retired in February and will be replaced by Rick Dougherty. Fuchs Petrolub announced Kurt Bock will succeed Jurgen Hambrecht, who plans to resign on May 7, as chairman of its supervisory board. Bock was formerly the CEO of chemical manufacturer BASF SE. Condition monitoring laboratory services provider Spectro Jet-Care made Larry Rumbol its new marine business development manager. Biosynthetic Technologies made Mark Miller its CEO. The U.K.s Morris Lubricants appointed Chris Slezakowski as managing director.

Doing Deals

Lukoil Marine Lubricants Middle East signed a three-year contract with Oman Shipping Company to supply its fleet with lubricants.