Last Thursday, HYUNDAI and SHELL Base Oil Co., Ltd. a 60/40 joint venture company formed by Hyundai Oilbank and Shell, respectively, inaugurated a new lube base oil manufacturing plant in Daesan, South Korea, 140 kilometers southwest of Seoul. The plant has the capacity to produce approximately 13,000 barrels per day of API Group II base oils per year.

South Korea's SK Lubricants, together with Repsol of Spain, have announced they are ready to start official commercial production of their new 13,000 barrels per day API Group II and III lube base oil plant in Cartagena, on the east cost of Spain. Repsol will have a 30% share and SK Lubricants will own the remaining 70% of the new plant.

German technology company Siemens has entered into an agreement with Dresser-Rand to acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Dresser-Rand by way of a friendly takeover bid for approximately $7.6 (€5.8) billion. Dresser-Rand is a leading supplier of compressors, steam turbines, gas turbines and engines for the oil & gas, process and power industries.

After selling its petrol stations in Thailand to local retailer Susco two years ago, Malaysia's national oil company PETRONAS, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is re-entering the Thai market. The company says it will focus on the lubricant market, aiming to be in the top five in the Bt50 (US$1.55) billion Thai lube market within five years.

On 20-21 November 2014, ICIS and the European Lubricating Grease Institute (ELGI) will co-host the first Industrial Lubricant Conference in Amsterdam. Dr Valentina Serra-Holm, Marketing Director of Naphthenics, Nynas AB, on November 20 will make a presentation evaluating the role of naphthenic base oils in industrial applications during the conference.

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