Shell has announced the selection of Ascension Parish, near Sorrento, Louisiana, as the location for a potential gas-to-liquids (GTL) facility. According to the terms of an incentive agreement with the state, Shell at a minimum would spend $12.5 billion and create 740 direct jobs, should the project be built. The plant reportedly would be similar in size to Shell’s Pearl GTL facility in Qatar.

Pinto Energy, a developer of smaller scale Gas-to-Liquids facilities, has announced plans to build a 2,800 barrel/day GTL plant at its 80-acre industrial site east of in Ashtabula, Ohio. The plant will convert abundant low-cost natural gas from the Utica and Marcellus shale region, into high value specialty products, including lubricants, as well as ultra clean transportation fuels.

Sri Lanka's Laugfs Holdings has been given approval to build a lubricant blending plant at Hambantota Port, in Southern Sri Lanka, which will have an annual capacity of 50,000 metric tons, with investments of 1.14 million US dollars. Laugfs Lubricants oils are presently blended at a state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Singapore.

LUKOIL and UZAUTOSANOAT, the Uzbekistan state automotive company, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding providing for cooperation in the manufacture and sale of engine oils and fluids. As part of the agreement, UzautoOil products, manufactured at the LUKOIL-Permnefteorgsintez refinery, will be sold by LUKOIL in Uzbekistan and in other Central Asian countries.

The Group IV and Group V base oil charts shown in our Global Lube Base Oil Specification Quick Reference Center, listed in the right hand column of every week's OEM/Lube News issue, are being updated and are scheduled to appear in next week's OEM/Lube News. Several base oil manufacturers/ refineries have been added, as well as updates to existing products.

• Swiss Lubricant Company Strub Opens Subsidiary in St. Petersburg, Russia
• Oxea Celebrates 75 Years of oxo Synthesis
• Afton Chemical to Present “Gear Lubricants Suitable For High Loads And High Speeds” at 2013 Dalian Lubricant Technique & Economy Forum in Dalian, China
• Afton Chemical to Present "Targeted Transmission Fluid Property Design for Improved Fuel Economy" at CTI’s Symposium in Shanghai, China
• Caltex Australia Appoints Bruce Rosengarten as General Manager - Marketing
• Valero Seeks $300 Million in IPO
• SAE International to Host “2013 Fuels, Lubricants and Aftertreatment Symposium: Achieving Fuel Economy and GHG Targets” at Hyatt Regency in Long Beach, Calif., Nov. 18-21