COMARNAT, the national regulatory committee of Mexico's Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources, has approved a plan to adopt new diesel engine emissions standards for heavy-duty diesel engines. The new standards, aligned with those in place in the rest of North America and in the European Union, places Mexico at the forefront of clean vehicle policy in Latin America.

Booming industrial production, especially in China, India, Russia, Turkey, Brazil and Southeast Asia, regulations on waste water treatment and disposal are expected to increase the adoption of synthetic metalworking fluids. In turn, the metalworking additives segment will grow rapidly as synthetic-based metalworking fluids require a stronger additive package.

Auburn, California based Flyers Energy announced last Monday that it has acquired the assets and business operations of both Bloomington-based Poma Distributing Company, Inc. and Santa Rosa-based Redwood Coast Petroleum, and related entities. These transactions will effectively triple Flyers' lubricants volume.

Denmark's Novozymes announced the launch of Novozymes Eversa®, the first commercially available enzymatic solution to make biodiesel from waste oils without the need for sodium methoxide, one of the most hazardous chemicals in traditional biodiesel plants. The new enzymatic solution also allows the use of waste oils that contain more than 0.5% FFA.

Ergon Refining, Inc. announced this past Thursday, January 8, that it will move the price of its naphthenic base oils down by $0.15-0.25 per gallon. This was Ergon's fifth naphthenic base oil price decrease announcement since this past August, for a total of approximately $0.90 cents per gallon during the six month period.

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