Shell Oil Company is purchasing the nation’s largest independent lubricant company, a deal some predict will make Shell the leading global lubricant player.

The purchase of Pennzoil-Quaker State is valued at about $1.8 billion. Company officials hope to have the transaction completed in the second half of the year.
Under the transaction, Shell will acquire Pennzoil-Quaker State through a cash merger. Completion of the deal is subject to approval by Pennzoil-Quaker State Company stockholders and the federal government.
The deal is expected to have a monumental impact on the North American as well as the global lubricants business, according to international business consulting firm Kline & Company.
They predict Shell will be the leading global lubricant player, followed by ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, BP Castrol, and Sinopec/CNPC, says Geeta S. Agashe, a director in Kline's Petroleum & Energy Practice.
He says the announced acquisition could have Shell accounting for over 500 million gallons of branded lubricants in the United States.
With that, three players -- Shell (combined with Pennzoil-Quaker State), ChevronTexaco, and ExxonMobil -- will account for over 40% of the total U.S. branded lubricant sales volume, according to sales data from “Opportunities In Lubricants,” Kline & Company's continuing analysis of the U.S. lubricants industry.
The move by Shell comes in the wake of an earlier announcement they purchased the remainder of Texaco’s involvement in a joint venture, allowing Texaco to complete its merger with Chevron. In February Shell also announced it is re-branding more than 13,000 retail and wholesale operations from Texaco to Shell.