Imperial Oil's lubricants and specialty products operation in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada will close by mid-2015. The ramp down will begin next year with the operation to be moved to Edmonton. This closure does not impact the rest of the Sarnia manufacturing site

Shell hosted the official unveiling of its newly expanded and upgraded lubricant blending plant at Zhapu, Zhejiang province, China, on November 12. This state-of-the-art plant will double the capacity of the Zhapu site to 400 million litres per annum. The new expansion is in fact an add-on plant, built on the newly acquired land adjacent to the existing plant.

ExxonMobil announced a distributor agreement with Quimica Delta, one of Mexico’s largest petrochemical suppliers. The new agreement will enhance the supply of the Company’s Group I, Group II and Group II+ base stocks across Mexico. As a distributor of ExxonMobil base stocks, Quimica Delta will offer ExxonMobil Basestocks’ CORETM Group I and EHCTM Group II / II+ products.

Globally, Shell remains the lubricants market leader claiming 12% total market share; ExxonMobil and BP follow with 10% and 7%, respectively. The middle pack—regional majors and NOCs— with companies like Fuchs and Gazprom are expected to claim some market share from the top five leaders. In 2012, for example, Fuchs finds itself within the global top ten for the first time.

VeroLube Inc., a provider of used oil re-refining services and route based collection of used motor oil recently announced the development of the first two (2) new used oil re-refineries using VeroLube’s patented, proprietary and certified ReGenTM re-refining process. These initial re-refineries will be located in Bowden, Alberta Canada and Houston, Texas.

Malaysia-based UMW Holdings Bhd's unit UMW Lubricant International Sdn Bhd has signed a ten year agreement as exclusive distributor for Spanish oil group Repsol Lubricantes Y Especialidades SA branded automotive, motorcycle and industrial lubricating oils and ancillary products excluding marine oils in selected Asian territories, for 10 years beginning January 1, 2014.

• The Poma Companies to Market Castrol Throughout Southern California
• Alpha Olefin Market Demand is Expected to Reach 4.6 Million Metric Tons by 2018
• Turkish Construction Equipment Manufacturer Hidromek Buying Mitsubishi’s Motor Grader Business
• Yet Another, Pulaski, Va, Mining Plant Closure By Caterpillar