The company advised its marketers that they expect increased demand prior to the price change. Because of this, it will limit the volume distributors purchase at the old lower price to 125% of their base volume from Nov 1, 2006 to Oct. 31, 2007.

Petro-Canada also up its lubricant prices 10%, effective as of 12/13/07.

CITGO announced an increase in its lubricant prices up to 10%. Similar to Shell, CITGO's price increase gives more than the usual amount of time before the increase goes into effect. Its effective date is 1/1/08.

Maxum, through one of its operating subsidiaries, Simons Petroleum, has acquired the assets and business operations of Farmington Oil Company, a regional petroleum marketer based in Farmington, New Mexico. Operated by the Allee family for nearly 30 years, Farmington Oil is a respected, long-time industry participant, providing fuels and lubricants to commercial & industrial accounts throughout the Four Corners region of New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Arizona. Farmington Oil will be operated as a division of Simons Petroleum, and key personnel from Farmington have joined Simons to continue to serve the Four Corners region.

Further, through another of its operating subsidiaries, General Petroleum, Maxum has acquired a lubricant blending facility in Balboa, Panama, formerly owned by Esso Standard Oil of Panama (Exxon). General Petroleum currently distributes fuel and lubricants in Panama, through a Panamanian subsidiary. This newly acquired blending facility provides an opportunity to expand upon Maxum's existing customer base of deep draft marine vessels in the Panama Canal area, as well as serves as a launching point to serve the greater Central America lubricant market.

"Maxum continues to successfully execute our strategy of identifying, executing and integrating strategic acquisitions", said Perot Bissell, Maxum Petroleum's CEO. "Certain acquisitions expand our geographic footprint and industry reach, such as our acquisition of Petroleum Products in West Virginia earlier this year. Others, such as these New Mexico and Panama acquisitions, provide opportunities to complement our existing operations and fill out geographic areas we already serve."

SMF Energy is a wholesale supplier of lubricant products to the trucking, construction, utility, energy, chemical, manufacturing, telecommunication and government service industries. The company already markets lubricant products under the Texaco brand in Dallas, Houston, Beaumont, Lufkin, Longview, Waxahachie and Temple. The newly expanded marketers agreement includes the counties that make up the San Antonio market as well as those that abut the Interstate 10 corridor between San Antonio and Houston.

"The ability to distribute the Texaco lubricant product line in San Antonio complements our current fuel distribution business in that market and will allow us to expand into a larger facility while spreading the costs across a broader product line," SMF President and CEO Richard E. Gathright says.

Antonio, a major logistics hub with foreign trade zone status at the former Kelly Air Force Base. All of these factors contributed to SMF's decision to expand into San Antonio, Gathright says.