Royal Dutch Shell and Saudi Aramco last Wednesday unveiled plans to divide assets in their Motiva Enterprises LLC joint venture, handing control of Motiva's 600,000 barrel per day refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, the biggest refinery in the US, to the Saudi Arabia-based group. The Motiva joint venture, formed in 1998, has operated as a 50/50 refining and marketing joint venture between the parties since 2002.

Plans to build the NexLube oil reprocessing facility at Port Tampa Bay are back on track, years after cost overruns halted construction in November 2013. To help pay for the rest of the work, NexLube has reached a deal with German oil processor Puralube for a joint venture to run the factory. Now, the facility could be up and running by the middle of 2018, port documents show.

Shell Lubricants last Tuesday announced several recent senior appointments within the company's business. These include Andrew Hepher as VP of Global Commercial Technology, Carol Chen as General Manager for Consumer Lubricants Marketing, Roger Moulding as Global Lubricants Marketing & Lubricants Sales Europe, Middle East and Africa and Selda Gunsel as General Manager of Products & Quality.

BASF and PETRONAS Chemicals Group Berhad announced last Thursday that the companies' joint venture broke ground a new world-scale 50,000 tpa production plant for highly reactive polyisobutene (HR-PIB) at the site of their existing joint venture, BASF PETRONAS Chemicals Sdn Bhd, in Kuantan, Malaysia.

ANGUS Chemical Company last Wednesday announced the opening of the latest addition to its global series of Customer Application Centers in Singapore. Unifying world-class technical services and local regulatory expertise, the new facility will provide a collaborative hub for local and regional customers to work together with ANGUS and boost innovations.

• HollyFrontier Increases Prices of Its (Group I) SN70 Through SN250 by 15 CPG, SN525 and SN600 by 17 CPG and BS by 12 CPG, Effective March 16
• According to Sources, ExxonMobil Increases Prices of Its (Group I) CORE 100 and 300 by 15 CPG, CORE 600 by 17 CPG and BS by 12 CPG, Effective March 14; Increases (Group II) EHC 65 and (Group II+) EHC 45 by 15 CPG
• Paulsboro Refining Increases Prices of Its (Group I) VP Low Visc by 15 CPG, Its VP500 and VP700 by 17 CPG and Bright Stock by 12 CPG, Effective March 17
• Chevron Appoints Mark A. Nelson Corporate Vice President of Strategic Planning Effective April 1, 2016
• Gulf Oil International to Be Global Sponsor and Official Lubricant and Fuel Retail Partner of Manchester United
• PETRONAS Lubricants Sets Up Sydney Office