Maxum Petroleum ("Maxum"), a leading energy logistics company acquired Paulson Oil at the end of last week.

Headquartered in Chesterton, Indiana, Paulson Oil (POCO) is one of the largest fuel and lubricant distributors in the Mid-west. The company was founded in 1973 by Bob and Pete Paulson. POCO's lubricant brands include CITGO, the Shell family of brands, and Service Pro.

Maxum Petroleum, Inc.is a leading energy logistics company. The company has grown to become the largest lubricant distributor in the US through a series of several large acquisitions of the past few years, including Canyon State, General Petroleum, Petroleum Products Inc, and Simons Petroleum.

And last month, Maxum, through one of its operating subsidiaries, Simons Petroleum, acquired the assets and business operations of Farmington Oil Company, a regional petroleum marketer based in Farmington, New Mexico.

More details to follow in the next edition of Jobbers World Online News!

Valvoline advised its marketers late last Friday that it will increase the price of its lubricants by 11% effective January 21, 2007. This increase will apply to all Valvoline lubricants and greases.

In addition to the price increases previously announced by Chevron, the company advised its marketers last week of a revision to the increase. The revision is specific to lubricants sold in small packages. Specifically this includes a $0.36 a gallon increase for quarts and gallons.

This increase applies to Havoline and URSA, as well as Supreme and Delo in small packages.

And for those that might have missed it, Castrol announced an increase in its prices to marketers on November 30.

Depending on product and package size, this increase ranges from $0.44 to $0.76 a gallons. Although announced prior to Chevron's revision impacting small packages, Castrol's increase is also heavier on packaged product.

In a recent issue of Jobbers World Online we report a supplier was getting aggressive on price and marketers were being offered PCEO and HDEO at prices under $4.00 a gallon in bulk. This news piece garnered a good deal of attention; both positive and negative.

On the positive side, some thought it was great that while the majors were bumping prices up, at least one supplier was "holding the line" with very competitive pricing. Those in this camp felt this supplier offered a good alternative to the major brands and an opportunity to participate in a wider , more cost sensitive segment of the business. Others agreed and added that, this supplier was not alone, they said "similar pricing" is available from other independent lubricant manufacturers, and a rerefiner.

But then there were the negative comments about the news piece. These comments shared a common thread. That being, although price is certainly important, Jobbers World On-Line would have done marketers a greater service if it had also included information about what marketers should look out for when considering the purchase, and ultimately resale of low price products. While not pointing fingers at any particular supplier, they say in some cases, lower price can mean lower performance and/or quality. And if it does, a lubricant marketer may find that the price its business pays for selling low cost lubricants can be very high. As a result, they added, although there will always be good deals in the marketplace, marketers and their customers should carefully consider the quality and claims of low cost lubricants before they buy.

So let's look at some of the things marketers and end users need to be careful of.