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Reports from Russia suggest that the country’s motorists increasingly prefer quality imported foreign branded vehicles instead of those manufactured domestically. Commentators also say that there is a definite trend amongst such car owners to take greater care of their imported vehicles, and this is sending a significant message about quality to the country’s oil companies. Better incomes and more readily available credit mean that Russian motorists can now buy higher value cars that generally require higher quality engine oils. This is pushing up the demand for premium engine oils. Oil companies have had to respond by raising the quality of their products. Lukoil, for example, has recently reformulated its premier-tier engine oils, and relaunched them. Its best quality passenger car products now meet API-SL and SM standards, and it has produced heavy-duty diesel oils that comply with API CG-4 and CI-4 specifications.
Spain’s Madrid-based oil company, Repsol YPF, has sold its lubricants and aviation business in Ecuador to Primax S.A., a company to which Shell sold its retail business in Ecuador in 2005. Primax is 51% owned by Enap Refinerias S.S. − a subsidiary of Chile’s national oil company, Empresa Nacional del Petróleo − and the remaining 49% belongs to the trading division of the Romero Group in Peru, Romero Trading SA. Enap and Romero bought Shell’s fuels business in Peru in 2004, which established Primax as an important player in the Peruvian lubes market. The new sale is said to be in accordance with the Spanish company’s strategic plan for 2008-2012 in which it expects to sell ‘non-strategic assets’. The deal cost $47 million, and includes Repsol’s chain of 123 service stations. 
Caterpillar Inc is to spend $1 billion between 2008 and 2010 on expanding its Illinois facilities at East Pretoria, Joliet, Decatur, Aurora, and Mossville. The company has also signed a memorandum of understanding with Navistar International Corporation to develop, manufacture and distribute commercial trucks in select regions outside North America. It is also planning to introduce a Caterpillar-branded heavy-duty truck for severe service applications in North America, but has also announced that, after 2009, it will quit the Class 8 on-highway commercial vehicle market, except for severe duty trucks and engines.
The National Marine Manufacturers Association has published its latest list of approved, or certified, TC-W3® engine oils that are recommended for use by two-cycle engine manufacturers and are licensed around the world, and FC-W™ engine oils that are used in high-performance four-stroke engines. These marine oils are said to reduce emissions in accordance with EPA requirements, improve fuel economy, and prolong engine life. The lists can be accessed by registration number, oil name, and registered company. The complete TC-W3® list can be viewed at: TC-W3 list 
The Sterling Truck Corporation of Redford, Michigan, has produced a new tractor fuelled by natural gas. The Sterling Set-Back 113 is powered by the Cummins Westport ISL G G 8.9-litre stoichiometric cooled-exhaust gas recirculation engine. Its makers say that this is a response to an increased interest in green transportation on the part of the utility companies and municipalities of North America, and the sort of deterioration in air quality that is occurring in such places as Los Angeles and Long Beach. They are targeting the Californian market, where there are tax incentives for using alternative fuels, and where natural gas availability is on the increase. Full details can be found at: Sterling trucks.com