1. Delphi launches diesel oil
sensor Delphi Corp. has
introduced a new diesel engine oil condition sensor, which the company
is promoting as ‘a reliable and cost-effective method to help maximise
useful oil and filter life.' The Delphi Diesel Engine Oil Condition
Sensor is intended for use in diesel engine applications ranging from
light-duty passenger vehicles to commercial vehicles and off-highway
equipment. It can be mounted in the sump with a standard electrical
connection, or as a custom design elsewhere in the engine. The sensor
accurately detects soot, which adsorbs oil additives and contributes to
engine wear. It operates by measuring AC conductivity and also measures
dielectric constant and viscosity (in stationary oil only), and can
detect fuel dilution. The sensor indicates whenever the oil quality
falls below the required standard, enabling action to be taken on what
may be oil that has exceeded its useful life, or symptomatic of
something more serious. Delphi says that its product will minimise oil
maintenance costs and vehicle downtime, and will facilitate longer oil
change intervals – thereby helping to reduce the environmental effects
of used oil and oil filter disposal. More at www
.delphi.com/manufacturers/cv/powertrain/dsloilcond/
Royal Dutch Shell’s wholly owned subsidiary, Shell
China Holdings BV, has paid an undisclosed amount for a 75% stake in
Beijing Tongyi Petroleum Chemical and in Xianyang Tongyi Petroleum
Chemical, producers and marketers of China’s major independent lubricant
brand. This share represents the former entire holding of Xiang Jia
International Investment Holdings; the remaining 25% is owned by Beijing
Bailiwei Science and Technology Development Company. The move has been
welcomed by Tongyi, who said that the alliance was needed in the face of
international competition. The company has three lubricants blending
plants in China that rely heavily on imported oil. The finished product
reaches the public through about 90,000 retailers across the country.
Shell also has three lubes plants in China. Between them, these plants
have a combined capacity of 800,000 tons per year, which the new
partnership wants to increase in order to meet what it sees as an almost
immediate requirement in a burgeoning market. China is currently
consuming around six billion litres of lubricants each year, and this
deal makes Shell the third-largest provider, with a 9.5% market share.
Tongyi and Shell brands will continue to be marketed separately.
Lubrizol has created
a comprehensive website dedicated to API CJ-4, the lubricant upgrade
designed to meet 2007 environmental regulations. It comes just ahead of
licensing of the new specification for heavy-duty diesel engine oil.
Arranged under four main headings, the website not only provides an
overview of the rationale, history and development of CJ-4, but also
lists specifics such as the main engine tests carried out. There is a
section on the most frequently asked questions, and anyone with queries
of their own can contact Lubrizol direct. The site includes a free
online course, helping to educate all interested parties in all aspects
of CJ-4. While the new specification will also meet the needs of older
heavy-duty diesel engines, Lubrizol believes that products based on the
current CI-4 version will be on the market until at least 2010. The CJ-4
website is at
www.cj-4.com
MAN AG has invited
Scania to enter into a new round of friendly takeover talks, following
its failed hostile bid to spend some €12.2 billion on buying more than
90% of the shares and votes in its Swedish rival. The bid was rejected
because Scania felt that MAN had undone its earlier friendly approach by
aggressively buying the Swedish company’s shares. They also felt that
the offer undervalued Scania. The initial move prompted Swedish company
to issue a statement anticipating the bid and the Stockholm stock
exchange temporarily suspended trading in their shares. Since
then, MAN has acquired a further 5% stake in Scania, bringing its total
holding to 14.27% of Scania’s voting capital and 11.48% of its share
capital. The German truck maker is also reported to have implied that it
would increase its offer price, and other reports say that the proposed
takeover has the backing of Volkswagen, which, with 34%, is Scania’s
largest shareholder. Meanwhile, MAN continues to vindicate its hostile
approach by blaming Scania for blocking an amicable deal, and says that
the door is still wide open for a renewed friendly approach. Volkswagen
is said to be advising the rivals to put aside their differences, and is
apparently willing to back any attempt by MAN to buy a sufficient stake
in Scania that would give MAN and VW a combined majority holding.
If the bid is successful, and subject to obtaining the necessary
merger control clearances, MAN would want to complete the deal by the
end of 2006. The company says that such a deal would create the leading
European truck manufacturer and the third-largest – in terms of revenues
– in the world. The combined group would continue with a two-brand
strategy, and would jointly target developing markets by extending the
Scania product range. MAN anticipates: ‘Western markets will show modest
growth; organic growth is being driven by developing markets such as
eastern Europe, Russia, India, China and south-east Asia where economic
activity and infrastructure development support demand for
transportation’.
Petrobras of Brazil
has bought fifty per cent of the Pasadena refinery, situated in Texas,
USA, for approximately $360 million. The other fifty per cent is held by
Astra Oil Company, a subsidiary of Belgian Compagnie Nationale à
Portefeuille AS (CNP). Petrobras has recently been listed by Platts as
eighth in the world’s top 250 energy companies, and is the only one in
Latin America to make the top ten. At Pasadena, the partners intend to
increase the refinery’s level of processing capacity from the current
100,000 barrels per day. They are currently investigating means of
doubling production and adapting the refinery to process the heavy oil
imported from the Compos Basin, such as Petrobras’s Marlim crude, and to
convert it to ‘high-quality products that will meet all US regulatory
and environmental requirements’.
OATS is
implementing a major change to its data-gathering procedures for EARL by
opening up the source database to users. The Global Updating System
(GUS) will let authorised users add in makes, models and applications
from their own sources.
This new supply of information will
supplement the remarkable work done by OATS’ in-house data-gathering
team. After yet another really busy quarter the EARL database now has
information on over 208,000 lubricated compartments. With the
introduction of GUS, OATS looks to ramp up the rate of information
growth beyond the 24% per annum currently being achieved.
OATS is
still keen to hear from lubes professionals, anywhere in the world, who
could join the company’s data-gathering team on a full or part-time
basis. For more information on this or any of these developments please
email the OEM Team at OATS. oemteam@oats.co.uk
Greif, Inc. has acquired Delta Petroleum Company
from Riverside Company in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. Greif is a global player
in industrial packaging, products and services, operating in forty
countries. Delta Petroleum is a blender and packager of lubricating oils
and lubricant additives, chemicals and glycol-based products, and is
said to have revenues in excess of $182 million. It processes more than
200 million gallons of products each year, and is the largest company of
its kind in North America. The Riverside Company is a financial
facilitator, specialising in management and leveraged buyouts, which
acquired Delta in 1999. Greif intends that all the current Delta
operations – Olympic Oil, Delta Rocky Mountain Petroleum, Delta Chemical
Services, Delta Petroleum, Vulsay Industries and Delta Atlantic – will
keep their identities as separate business units.
Petronas has
formally set in motion the building of a new Group III lubricant base
oil plant in Melaka, Malaysia. The ground-breaking ceremony took place
within the company’s existing refinery, where the new plant is expected
to become operational in 2008. It is the first of its kind in Malaysia
and south-east Asia, and will be able to produce 6,500 barrels per day,
or about 300,000 metric tons per year. The Group III base oils will be
refined from high-wax feedstock, sourced from Petronas’s refineries in
Melaka and Kertih, and will be marketed under the Etro brand.
Lubes ‘n’ Greases magazine has published a
wallchart, Global Guide to Non-conventional Base Stocks. The chart lists
and describes almost 180 manufacturing plants of polyalphaolefins and
poly internal olefins, polyalkylene glycols, polyisobutenes, esters,
silicones, phosphate esters, API Group III base oils, gas-to-liquids,
etc. This is a companion publication to the magazine’s Guide to Base Oil
Refining, which similarly listed and described 150 mineral base oil
refineries. Lubes ‘n’ Greases is read in 82 countries around the world,
and more than 3,350 readers have now signed up to its digital edition.
The magazine can be contacted on info@LNGpublishing.com or by
telephone on +1 703 536 0800. The web address is www.LNGpublishing.com
Neste Oil has published a strategy aimed at
making it the world’s leading biodiesel producer. The Finnish oil
company, which was established in 1948 and operates in ten countries, is
committed to developing fuels with reduced environmental impact. The
company says that it intends ‘to produce millions of tons annually’ from
a variety of sources, claiming that its proprietary biodiesel is ‘a
premium-quality fuel that clearly outperforms both the vegetable oil and
crude oil-based diesel fuels currently on the market’. Neste intends,
either alone or with partners, to build several biodiesel production
facilities in various market areas and to increase its research and
development in utilising different raw materials. Currently its product
is made from a variety of vegetable oils and animal fats. The company’s
largest-ever investment, a new diesel production line at its Porvoo
refinery, is due to be completed this winter. The new strategy backs
Neste Oil’s mission to be ‘the leading provider of cleaner traffic
fuels’; meanwhile, oil refining will remain at the centre of its
business, and the company intends to invest in new conversion capacity
at its current refineries.
11. BMW unveils hydrogen
luxury model BMW is to exhibit
what it calls ‘the world’s first hydrogen-powered luxury performance
car’ at the Los Angeles Motor Show in November. The new BMW Hydrogen 7
is ‘a production-ready car to be built in limited numbers and offered to
select users in 2007’. Its internal combustion engine can run on liquid
hydrogen or petrol; the dual technology means that it has a cruising
range in excess of 125 miles in the hydrogen mode, and a further 300
miles under petrol power. One hundred BMW Hydrogen 7s are to be built
next year.
US investment firm Gramercy, based in Connecticut, has
bought a 25% stake in Bulgaria’s Sofia-based Prista Oil. In 2000, Texaco
acquired a 25% share in the company, which passed to Chevron as a result
of its merger with Texaco in 2001. In mid-2006, citing that the time had
come for Chevron and Prista to each go their own way, Chevron sold its
stake to Marsdale International, representing the brothers Plamen and
Atanas Bobokov – the founders and majority shareholders in Prista.
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