Sanjeev Garg, global head – customer care, commercial vehicles, said, Through our partnership with Total Lubrifiants, we…are pleased to ensure our customers with superior quality branded lubricants…[for] engines, gearboxes and drivelines. With this partnership, Total will also jointly support the modernization of Tata Motors workshops across Africa.

NAD Blasts Castrol Ad

The United States National Advertising Division urged BP Lubricants USA to rescind a recent commercial that claims BPs Castrol Edge motor oil is superior to ExxonMobils Mobil 1 motor oil, saying the ad falsely disparages Mobil 1 on the basis of torture testing that lacks consumer relevance.

The video advertisement depicts two Dodge Challengers in a torture test, in which each is loaded with 1,600 pounds and run on a dynamometer at 75 miles per hour on a seven percent incline. After five

days, the car using Castrol Edge continues to run perfectly while the Mobil 1-equipped engine begins smoking and shooting sparks. Citing the test as evidence, BP Lubricants claims
that Castrol Edge is stronger than Mobil 1.

The NAD, a unit of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, reviewed the ad after ExxonMobil challenged the accuracy of BPs torture test and questioned whether it had any relevance to everyday drivers. In response, BP Lubricants argued that the advertising industrys system of self-regulation has never explicitly set rules about whether torture testing must be consumer-relevant.

NAD disagreed, according to its January 22 press release. Previous NAD cases have made clear that all advertising must be consumer-relevant, NAD noted. Torture tests can be used to support product claims, but only if they represent conditions which have real world experience, the agency said, adding that ExxonMobil and BP Lubricants both agree that consumers would never subject a cars engine to the conditions depicted in the test.

SKF Invests in R&D

SKF plans to build new technical centers in Sweden and the Netherlands to perform advanced product development and testing for lubrication systems and services as well as for bearings, sales and engineering. The Gothenburg, Sweden-based company said that two centers together will support its five technology platforms – bearings, seals, mechatronics, lubrication systems and services. Mechatronics is the combination of mechanical engineering, computing, and electronics, as used in the design and development of new manufacturing techniques

The new center in Nieuwegein, the Netherlands, will work closely with SKFs main engineering and research center where SKF researches areas such as advanced dynamic simulations for bearings, advanced lubrication development and the principles of tribology. The new center in Gothenburg, Sweden, will support SKFs manufacturing development center. SFK already has a technical center India in Bengaluru, and is expanding its technical center China and moving it to the new campus at Jiading, Shanghai.

Lukoil Cuts Lube Deals

Russian oil major Lukoil recently signed lubricant supply contracts with a number of business and government customers in northern Russia, Sweden, Romania, Bulgaria and Macedonia. Under the deal between Lukoil Lubricants Oy (the companys Finland lube arm) and Norilsk Nickel, a mining and smelting company, Lukoil will supply over 1,250 metric tons of industrial lubes for mining vehicles and manufacturing equipment during 2014. The oil major will supply the Russian metallurgical giant primarily with its Teboil branded products such as Pressure, Super, Larita, Hypoid or Fluid.

Lukoil also signed a supply contract with Keolis Sverige, one of the biggest public transportation companies in Sweden. The deal includes supply of up to 500 tons of Lukoils Avantgarde-branded diesel engine oil in 2014.

During the second half of 2013, Lukoil won other lubricant supply tenders with a number of key enterprises in Romania, Macedonia and Bulgaria, according to Viktor Titov, head of the companys East Europe lubricant sales and marketing. In Romania, our partners now include the state-owned Romgaz, an upstream natural gas company, Complexul Energetic Hunedora, a national power supply company, the aviation company Aeroserv and the countrys defense ministry, Titov, who is based in Bucharest, said.

In addition, the company increased its lubricant supply to the Romanian railways, that reached 900 tons in 2013, or 10 percent higher volume compared to the year before.

Since July 2013, Lukoil also started supplying lubricants to several key customers in Macedonia. In…Skopje, we now deliver lubricants for the local municipality car park and its rescue and water supply units. In Bulgaria, the company started to deliver its products to Bulgartransgaz, a natural gas transport and storage operator.

In related news, the European Commission approved Lukoils acquisition of Austrian energy group OMVs non-retail lubricants business, including a 35,000 tons per year blending plant. OMVs lubes plant is located near the Austrian capital of Vienna, and it supplies products to several countries in West, Central and Southeastern Europe. LLK International bought the plant and OMVs distribution operations in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. It also bought the rights for use of OMVs Bixxol motor oil brand.