The Heartland rerefinery in Columbus and the Myrtle Grove site in Belle Chasse will be owned jointly by Vertex and a fund managed by Tensile through two newly created special purpose vehicles.

The deal is structured into two phases. Phase one, which closed July 26, places Vertexs Myrtle Grove assets into a standalone SPV. Tensile acquired 15.6 percent of the SPV for $4 million-paying $1 million to Vertex-purchased 1.5 million newly issued shares of Vertex common stock and was granted warrants to purchase 1.5 million shares of common stock for cash. This phase includes commencement of the pilot program.

Phase two, should Tensile opt to move forward, would include creation of the Heartland SPV, of which Tensile would acquire a 65 percent interest. Also included would be Tensiles purchase of $13.5 million of interests from Vertex and Tensiles investment of $7.5 million in the Heartland SPV, with the option to invest an additional $7 million.

Indian Oil to Make Group III

Indian Oil Corp. Ltd. expects to commission in 2022 a 270,000 metric tons per year base oil plant that will mostly produce API Group III stocks at its Haldia Refinery in West Bengal. The capital expenditure for the project, which received Stage-1 approval in August 2017, is estimated to be $160 million.

Chevron Lummus Global, a joint venture between Chevron U.S.A. Inc. and McDermott, said it has received license and engineering contracts to provide wax isomerization and hydrofinishing technologies, which are licensed under the Isodewaxing and Isofinishing brand names, for the project. The plant will be designed to process unconverted oil from a hydrocracking unit in the broader Haldia fuels refinery, it added.

The market for high quality base oils and synthetics in India is expected to expand as automakers strive to meet tougher vehicular emissions caps and develop technologies for fuel economy. Indian Oil, which markets lubricants under the Servo brand, said demand for Group II and III base oils in the country is substantially increasing, while demand for Group I is falling. The government-owned company projected Indias lube oil base stocks demand to grow to 3.5 million tons by 2021-22.

FTC Tells Quaker, Houghton to Divest

The United States Federal Trade Commission will require Quaker Chemical and Houghton International to divest operations related to aluminum and steel rolling oils as a condition of their delayed merger.

Details of the divestment have already been worked out, and the commission stated that the companies have agreed to sell assets to a subsidiary of French energy giant Total S.A. The assets to be divested include Houghtons product lines in North America for aluminum hot rolling oils and steel cold rolling oils and Quaker Chemical product lines associated with such materials, including steel cleaners and hydraulic fluids compatible with aluminum hot rolling oils.

In the absence of divestment, the commission concluded, Quaker Chemical would end up with a regional monopoly in aluminum hot rolling oils and would wield unilateral power that would substantially lessen competition in steel cold rolling oils and related services.

ExxonMobil Boosts PAO

ExxonMobil increased its production capacity of low-viscosity polyalphaolefins at its Gravenchon, France, plant by 19 percent to 105,000 metric tons per year. The company said it undertook the 17,000 t/y expansion to meet growing demand for synthetic base stocks.

In addition to the Gravenchon facility, ExxonMobil can make 196,000 t/y at its Baytown and Beaumont, Texas, plants, giving it about 40 percent of global PAO capacity. The companys production is split at 209,000 t/y of low-viscosity PAO, which is typically used as synthetic base stock, and 92,000 t/y of high-viscosity PAO, which is most often used as lubricant additive.

Brazil Selling Base Oil Refineries

In an attempt to lower the price of energy products, the administration of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has announced plans to sell 60 percent of the governments stakes in eight refineries operated by state-run oil company Petrobras. Two of those facilities include base oil plants.

Landulpho Alves refinery in Mataripe in the northeastern state of Bahia has 1,750 barrels per day of API Group I base oil production capacity, and Lubrificantes e Derivados de Petroleo do Nordeste-known as Lubnor-in Fortaleza in the northeastern state of Ceara has a 1,290 b/d naphthenic base oil plant.

The refinery sell-off plan is part of a broader divestment program. Bolsonaros administration plans to sell the first four refineries in 2020 and the remaining four in 2021.

Huntsman Sells Surfactants Business

Indorama Ventures purchasedHuntsman Corp.s chemical intermediates and surfactants businesses for $2 billion. As part of the transaction, Indorama will acquire Huntsmans production facilities in Chocolate Bayou, Port Neches and Dayton, Texas; Ankleshwar, India; and Botany, Australia.

The surfactants produced at the five plants are used as friction modifiers, and the alkylates are used as detergent additives.

The acquisition helps Indorama, a Bangkok-based petrochemicals producer, expand its North American footprint and diversify into surfactants. This is the companys largest acquisition ever and is expected to close by the end of the year.

Deal Reached in Second THF Suit

A preliminary settlement has been reached in a second class-action lawsuit in Missouri accusing Smittys Supply Inc. and Tractor Supply Co. of fraud for the supply of 303 tractor hydraulic fluid. The case alleged that the defendants violated Missouris Merchandising Practices Act and were fraudulent and negligent in supplying hydraulic fluid that did not adequately protect equipment.

The $1.7 million settlement with Smittys and Tractor Supply Co. is calculated to reimburse some 10,000 plaintiffs for half of the price of 303 fluids that they purchased since 2013. The settlement also includes $5,000 for each of four lead defendants in the case, $150,000 to reimburse attorneys for expenses and $511,500 in contingency fees for the plaintiffs attorneys.

In April, a settlement was reached in a similar case against Omni Specialty Packaging and OReilly Automotive Inc.

Starting in January, tractor hydraulic fluids sold in the United States that do not meet current specifications will need to be clearly labeled as obsolete and accompanied by an explanatory warning on their package fronts, following NIST Handbook 130 amendments adopted in July by the U.S. National Conference on Weights and Measures.

NLGI Teams Up with CQA

The National Lubricating Grease Institute is working with the Center for Quality Assurance to define future grease specifications that will better reflect advancements in materials, technologies and applications. The initial focus of the collaboration will be on updated specifications for a premium grease that could be used in a variety of bearings and applications that require similar lubricating properties. Additional specifications will be defined for high load, water resistance, corrosion resistance and long-life applications.

The NLGI said it has contracted with CQA to interview and survey members of the grease industry to help define the new specifications and ensure that they meet the needs of todays grease-lubricated applications.

Those who would like to participate in the interview process or track the progress of the specification development may email grease@Center
ForQA.com.

EPA Fines California Blender

Commerce, California-basedU.S. Lubricants Inc.agreed to pay almost $200,000 in civil penalties under a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for violations of the Clean Water Act at one of its storage facilities located approximately half a mile from the Los Angeles River.

After an inspection conducted in May 2017 of U.S. Lubricants Commerce, California, petroleum storage facility, the EPA found that the company failed to fulfill requirements to inspect tanks and perform tank integrity testing; provide adequate secondary containment tanks to keep potential spills from leaving the site; develop and implement a facility response plan for major oil spills; and develop a spill prevention, control and countermeasure plan certified by a professional engineer.

ELGI Call for Papers

The European Lubricating Grease Institute announced a call for technical papers for its 2020 Annual General Meeting. The deadline to submit a proposal is October 20, 2019. The meeting will be held in Hamburg, Germany, on April 25-28, 2020. Priority will be given to papers with topics directly related to the theme of the composition and performance of greases, but ELGI also encourages authors to submit papers about other grease and lubricants industry topics. For information on sending paper topics, abstracts and lecturer details, visit www.elgi.org.

Briefly Noted

Brenntagannounced its acquisition of Tulsa, Oklahoma-basedB&M Oil Co., a lubricants distributor that serves its home state. B&M Oil is a bolt-on acquisition forJ.A.M. Distributing, Brenntag said.

Ravago Chemicals consolidated its three channel companies-Pacific Coast Chemicals, TH Hilson and TMC Materials-under the single brand name of Ravago Chemicals North America as of August 1.

Japans Adeka Corp. completed expansion of its Soma lubricant additive plant in August and seeks to expand sale of its engine oil additives to the U.S. and China. The plant mainly produces lubricant additives that are used in automotive engine oils, grease and industrial oils.

Bradford, Pennsylvania-basedAmerican Refining Group Inc.appointedSea Ready Marine Petroleumas its global distributor for marine lubricants.

Hyogo, Japan-based Moresco Corp. opened a new lubricant plant in Ahmedabad, India, with capacity to produce 10,000 metric tons per year of lubricants and hot melt adhesives. The plant will primarily make lubes for hot forging and metal cutting fluids.

Sasol Ltd. opened its alkoxylation plant in Nanjing, China, expanding its production of surfactants, some of which are used to make lubricants and metalworking fluid additives.

Croda International Plc acquired Rewitec GmbH, stating it aims to help the German additive supplier to expand. The companies did not disclose the price of the transaction.

Valvoline Inc. will become Chinese equipment maker LiuGongs lubricants provider for markets outside of China.

TotalandRefinorreached an agreement for the Argentina-based fuel supplier to market and distribute Total-brand lubricants at its gas stations.

Faces in the News

Westlake, Ohio-basedSea-Land Chemical Co., a lubricant additives distributor, named Ryan Keating chief financial officer.

Frances Lockwood, senior vice president and chief technology officer of Valvoline Inc., has been named to biochemical company Advonex Internationals board of directors.

German specialty chemicals company Biesterfeld Spezialchemie appointed Pavlo Prykhodchenko general manager of its Ukraine operations.

Emmanuel Decoeur has been named regional sales manager of Flexicons new office in Dijon, France.

Total announced that Marius Vermeulen has taken over as sales director for lubricants in Germany. Vermeulen replaces Patrick Schnell.

Pilot Chemical Company named John Manka director of technology. He will oversee product development processes and protocols from Pilots new technology center. The company has also expanded its distribution sales team, adding account managers Chris Urban, Patrick Conover, Cathi Mowery and Hannah Davis.

Correction

Warren Distribution invested $30 million in its Houston blending plant in 2018. The August 2019 Need to Know column cited an incorrect figure.