Kuala Lumpur-based Hyrax Oil Sdn Bhd announced it is building a lube blending plant in Mozambique, its first outside Malaysia. The plant will be jointly owned by Hyrax Oil and Petroleos De Mocambique, S.A (Petromoc), the national company of Mozambique. The two parties will register a company under the name of Petromoc-Hyrax Oil International Ltd.

Infineum is continuing its expansion in Asia Pacific with the signing of a lease agreement for a three story building for its proposed new Business and Technology Centre (BTC) in Jinqiao, Shanghai, China. The BTC is the latest development for Infineum in China which set up its first office in the country in 1999.

Afton Chemical's first quarter's performance this year was very similar to that of last year's record first quarter. Sales of petroleum additives for this year’s first quarter were $558.4 million, slightly above the first quarter 2012 sales of $557.7 million. Operating profit was $102 million or 5 percent lower than last year's first quarter.

Valvoline posted record second-quarter (of its 2013 fiscal year) income driven by lower raw-material costs and improved results across nearly every business segment, with particularly strong results in Valvoline Instant Oil Change and in Valvoline's International business. Although lubricant year-over-year sales decreased 5 percent to $494 million, EBITDA rose 33 percent to $88 million.

ExxonMobil and Chevron this past week reported lower first quarter 2013 revenues. ExxonMobil's net income was $9.5 billion, up 1%, on revenue of $108.8 billion compared to $9.45 billion on revenue of $124.1 billion in 2012's first quarter. Chevron's earnings were $6.2 billion on revenue of $54 billion compared with $6.5 billion on revenue of $59 billion in the 2012 first quarter.

The Novokuibyshevsk Oils and Additives Plant, a Rosneft subsidiary, announced it has begun producing marine lubricants under a licensing agreement for Castrol. The agreement, signed in January of 2013 with Baltic Petroleum (a subsidiary of BP), envisages production of 2.6 million liters of marine lubes per year.

London-based Hydrodec Group, an industrial oil re-refiner, has announced a major expansion of its North American business through a partnership with G&S Technologies Group, a New Jersey-based electricity transformer recovery services group. This deal will create a leading US re-refiner of used transformer oils.

• Daimler AG Announces Foundation of Daimler Trucks and Buses China Ltd
• Summit Lubricants of Batavia, NY Receives ISO 22000 Certification for Its Food Safety Management Program
• Kluber Lubrication's Parent, Freudenberg, Reported 2012 Sales of EUR 6.322 Billion (USD 8.2 Billion), Highest in Its History
• Petrobras Records Net Income of R$ 7.693 (US$3.850) Billion in 1st Quarter 2013
• Western NY Lubes Distributor NOCO Acquires New England Lubes Distributor Schultz Lubricants