Colonial Oil Industries (COI), a division of Savannah-headquartered Colonial Group on Friday (1 May) announced the acquisition of Atkinson Oil Company LLC, a Sandersville-based commercial distributor of fuel and lubricants.

According to the company’s website, COI is a marine fuel supplier that provides LSMGO-DMA, ULMGO-DMA, IFO blends and marine lubricants in South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida and Georgia. 

The acquisition is expected to strengthen COI’s presence across the Southeast and expand its ability to deliver essential fuel and lubricant products to customers in the region.

“Atkinson Oil is a highly respected, relationship-driven business with deep roots in the communities it serves. The Sandersville and Macon markets serve as a natural extension of our growth strategy,” said Christian Demere, president and CEO of Colonial Group.

 “We are proud to welcome the Atkinson team to the Colonial family and look forward to continuing their legacy of trusted service for customers.”

Operations will continue in Sandersville and Macon, Georgia, with all existing facilities remaining active.

“Atkinson Oil Company LLC is pleased to transition its operations to Colonial Oil Industries, Inc., a highly respected leader in the fuel and lubricants industry” said Clint Hancock, chief executive officer of Atkinson Oil. 

“This transition reflects a shared commitment to safety, service excellence, and customer relationships, ensuring continuity for our customers while providing expanded resources and long-term growth opportunities under Colonial Oil’s leadership.”

The acquisition adds 14 Atkinson Oil team members to COI as part of an integration process designed to maintain continuity and support long-term growth.

“Customers and partners of both companies can expect uninterrupted service,” Demere said.

“The combined organisation is focused on maintaining existing relationships and over time, customers will benefit from expanded resources, enhanced distribution capabilities and additional service offerings.”

Photo credit: Colonial Oil Industries
Published: 6 May, 2026

Singapore-based marine lubricant supplier Gulf Marine on Thursday (9 April) announced the expansion of its bonded lubricant supply points in China’s Fujian province, now including key terminals in Putian, Ningde, and Fuqing. 

This expansion allows vessels access to bonded lubricants across 14 additional operation terminals, four chemical product terminals, and two container/bulk cargo terminals across the region. 

“By enhancing our local network, we provide the supply resilience and responsiveness your operations require,” the company said. 

Manifold Times previously reported the company welcoming Reliable I, into service with a naming ceremony at Marina Keppel Bay, marking the arrival and operation of the company’s first purpose-built lubricant supply barge.

The vessel was expected to further strengthen Gulf Marine’s supply chain capabilities in Singapore, ensuring on-time, in-full lubricant delivery to vessels in Singapore and regional ports.

Related: Singapore: Gulf Marine debuts its first purpose-built lubricant supply barge
Related: Gulf Marine expands Singapore fleet to meet customer demand for marine lubricant delivery

Photo credit: Gulf Marine
Published: 10 April, 2026

Joe Star, Strategic Account Manager of marine fuels testing company VPS, on Thursday (19 February) highlighted the reported status of lubricant oil shows that over two-thirds of all lubricant oils are at a caution or Alert/Fail status after purification, based on the company’s database of lubricant testing data. 

He elaborated how vessels can maximise lubricant value and lifespan: 

Lubrication onboard

With thousands of litres of highly refined, and specifically formulated hydrocarbons flowing around a vessel at any one time, lubricating oils are the lifeblood of maritime operations, supporting a wide variety of applications.

Reducing friction, avoiding metal to metal contact, providing cooling and keeping components free of deposits and contamination, lubricating oils  are required to perform a wide range of duties. To ensure that this is the case, all approved lubricants are rigorously tested and must pass performance thresholds outlined by the Original Equipment Manufacturer’s (OEM’s), culminating in viscosity, Base Number and other parameters that must be achieved by the “fresh” product prior to use.

As the lubricating oils circulate throughout the systems and engines onboard, these values can and will change, based upon the harsh temperature changes, mechanical wear and external contamination through the environment, or other fluids, entering the system. The typical oil analysis testing regimes per equipment are setup to monitor and steward this amongst equipment classes, with samples routinely taken on a quarterly, six-monthly or annual basis depending upon the demands of the equipment and stress the application places on the lubricant.

As engines and equipment continue to push for greater efficiency, ensuring the lubricant can keep up with these demands, maintaining expected drain or refill intervals is critical to operating a vessel efficiently. This places a greater importance on purification and filtration systems onboard.

The following whitepaper shares insights from VPS’ extensive database of lubricant oil results, providing actionable best practices to extract maximum value and longevity from circulating systems, monetising the purifier systems onboard.

Maximising lubricant value and lifespan

When reviewing overall vessel or fleet-wide performance across used oil analysis results, the key focus should be on understanding and identifying any repeat offenders which are present. This highlights examples where the root cause is not rectified and ongoing lubricant refreshment will only temporarily bring parameters back into compliance, which will then be quickly challenged operationally.

Assessing circulating systems, such as four-stroke engines, or circulating system oil within two-stroke slow-speed engines, operators should look to optimise the majority of any caution or alert results which are failures relating to Viscosity or Base Number. 

This will highlight when the lifespan of the lubricant has been maximised based upon key base oil and additive properties within the lubricant.

Viscosity (mm²/s), is largely derived from the base oil within the lubricating oil and can be influenced by additive packages.

Operationally, Viscosity is one of the first parameters that provides an indication there are issues with lubrication within the system. These are either through increases due to oxidation, combustion and soot formation; or decreases via distillate fuel dilution or water ingress. Both detrimentally impact the lifespan of the lubricant and potential reliability of the asset, with longer term water ingress accelerating additive depletion. This can lead to the formation of emulsion within the lubricant, counter-intuitively increasing the viscosity over time.

As the lubricant is in use, its viscosity value will change over time and the property of the base oil within the lubricant remains; unless severe oxidation is identified. Lubricant viscosity and performance can be impacted by contamination. Yet appropriate dilution or removal of these contaminants can prolong the lifespan of the lubricant and this is where onboard lube oil purifiers assist. The value of ensuring the maximum value is attained from any onboard lubricant is only increased when the product in use is deemed as a “synthetic” product, due to the increased unit cost of the lubricants in question, and the extended drain intervals these products can achieve, provided the oil is maintained, tested and kept within degradation limits.

VPS’ database shows only 46% of caution or failure rates were due to Viscosity. Highlighting that over 50% of the samples which required action were subject to external contamination, such as Water or Iron (Fe).

Lubricant purification

Onboard lubricant purification and filtration are critical tools in maximising the lifespan of lubricant onboard, as highlighted in the below graphical representation.

As is the case with centrifugal fuel purifiers and systems, removing critical contaminants such as, water and insoluble oxidised molecules, is the key and core objective of lubricant oil purification systems.

The majority of onboard lubricant oil purification systems operate via a centrifugal separator with a continuous water outlet, controlled by a gravity disc, in addition to a filtration system. The gravity disc of choice should be setup to match the oil density, viscosity grade, separation temperature and flow rate through the purifier. More recent separator models can adjust the interface without the need of specific gravity disc selection.

Operationally, the temperature of the lubricant oil that is passed through the purifier is the key variable that should be controlled, matching the relevant equipment manufacturer guidelines. The higher the temperature, the better the separation efficiency of the system, resulting in more effective removal of large particles (> 6 µm), and water from the lubrication system.

In typical systems, an increase in separation temperature from 90˚C to 95˚Cresults in a 22% separator efficiency gain. The impact of this can be identified through pre and post lubricant purifier analysis, notably through Water Content (H2O (%m/m)), PQ Index and ISO 4406 cleanliness code.

Reviewing VPS’ extensive database of lubricant testing data, the reported status of lubricant oil after purifier systems shows that over 2/3rds of all lubricant oils are at a caution or Alert/Fail status after purification.

The most common reasons for Caution or Alert results are due to:

•   Elevated Water content
•   PQ Index
•   Elevated Viscosity

This data shows that whilst vessels have purification systems onboard, steps and actions based upon oil analysis results are required to ensure effective purification is undertaken, resulting in the prolonged lifespan of the lubricant. Notably, for lubricating oil where the pre-purifier water content is analysed at levels above 0.20 %m/m, a measurable decrease should be observed.

Note: The full article by VPS titled ‘Maximising Lubricant Value’ can be found here. 

Photo credit: VPS
Published: 20 February, 2026