Jebsen Group and CleanOil Investment Ltd. are cooperating to produce Group II base oil and finished lubricants from used oil. The two partners are currently building a state-of-the-art oil re-refinery in Gaolan Port Economic Zone, Zhuhai. Production is expected to begin by the second half of 2015, with the plant eventually producing 20,000 tons of oil per year.

At a ceremony in Vienna on January 29, Russian oil major Lukoil announced it has started an expansion of its lube manufacturing plant located in the suburbs of Vienna. Lukoil purchased the plant in mid-2013 with a capacity of 35,000 tons per year from Austria's OMV. The European Commission approved the acquisition on January 16, 2014.

ExxonMobil reported fourth quarter 2014 earnings of $6.57 billion on revenue of $87.28 billion, down 21% from $8.35 billion on revenue of $110.86 billion in the year-ago quarter. For the year, ExxonMobil earned $32.5 billion, down from $32.6 billion in 2013, on $411.9 billion in revenue, while BP reported a fourth quarter loss of $969 million, down from a profit of $1.5 billion a year ago.

Neste Oil has announced that its Board of Directors will propose to the Annual General Meeting (AGM) to change the company's name to Neste Corporation. This would communicate the changes in the company's business from products other than conventional oil products. The name change proposal will be processed as an amendment of the Articles of Association during the AGM on April 1, 2015.

Manitowoc announced on January 29, 2015 that its Board of Directors has approved a plan to pursue a separation of the Company's Cranes and Foodservice equipment businesses into two independent, publicly-traded companies. The Company anticipates a tax-free spin-off of the Foodservice business to be completed in early 2016, creating two separate companies with distinct enterprise strategies.

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