Chevron Oronite has announced that Ron Kiskis is retiring on August 31 as the company's president and that Desmond (Des) King will join Oronite from Chevron Technology Ventures as Oronite's new president. Oronite also announced Jirong Xiao will become vice president of sales and marketing, and Barbara Smith will become vice president of products and technology.

Switzerland-based Lonza said it will close its Swords plant near Dublin, Ireland which the company says has experienced a low capacity utilization for some time with no foreseeable change to this trend. The Swords plant is expected to cease its activities in June 2013 and transfer all products manufactured in Swords to its plants in Rochester, NY and Suzhou, China.

This past week BP, Phillips 66 and Shell reported financial results for the first quarter 2013. BP's replacement cost profit was $4.2 billion, down from $4.7 billion in the first quarter of 2012. Phillips 66's earnings were $1.4 billion, up from $636 million in the first quarter of 2012, while Shell's net profit was $8.18 billion, down from $8.74 billion in the first quarter of 2012.

FUCHS PETROLUB announced last Thursday it increased earnings before interest and tax 1.2% to EUR 73.4 million from EUR 72.5 million. First quarter profit after tax was EUR 51.6 million compared to EUR 51.4 million during the first quarter of 2012. Sales revenues for the quarter of EUR 442.0 million fell 1.4 percent below the previous year's level of EUR 448.4 million.

• Evonik Oil Additives’ Dr. Michael Webb to Present Paper Titled “Evaluation of ILSAC GF-5 Aged Oil Performance by ROBO Test at STLE Annual Meeting
• Quaker Chemical Reports Increased First Quarter 2013 Net Income
• Rosneft Reports 12.8% Net Profit Drop in Q1, Up 64.5% Sequentially
• Oxea Completes New Carboxylic Acids Production Plant
• Chemtura Reports 1Q Sales of $606 Million and Net Loss From Continuing Operations of $21 Million
• Pemex Reports MXN Peso 4.4 Billion (US$363 Million) 1Q Loss
• Dow Announces Increase in 1Q13 Profit
• Solid First Quarter of 2013 for BASF