Innospec Inc., formerly known as Octel Corporation and Associated Octel Company, Ltd., is a specialty chemical company. It comprises three business units: Fuel Specialties, responsible for the development and supply of additives for fuels and which also includes the company's activities in its Oilfield Chemicals division, Performance Chemicals, which focuses on products for the Personal Care industry and also provides products for the Polymers markets, and Octane Additives, which is the last remaining non-Chinese producer of
tetraethyllead
Tetraethyllead (commonly styled tetraethyl lead), abbreviated TEL, is an organolead compound with the formula Pb( C2H5)4. It is a fuel additive, first being mixed with gasoline beginning in the 1920s as a patented octane rating booster that ...
(TEL) used in the manufacture of
100LL
Avgas (aviation gasoline, also known as aviation spirit in the UK) is an aviation fuel used in aircraft with spark-ignited internal combustion engines. ''Avgas'' is distinguished from conventional gasoline (petrol) used in motor vehicles, ...
avgas throughout the world. The company has recently sparked controversy due to its being the only company that continues to export leaded petrol from the UK to Algeria despite pledging to stop several times.
Locations
Innospec is headquartered in
Englewood, Colorado, and has major regional centers in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
and
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
, along with international offices and processing facilities i
ChinaCyprusSouth Korea
an
India
Production plants are located in multiple countries including UK, France, Germany, Philippines, the United States, Italy and Spain.
The company has around 2000 employees located in 20 countries.
Acquisitions and divestments
Innospec has made the following recent acquisitions and divestments:
* Strata Control was acquired in December 2013 in Oilfield Drilling Specialties.
* Chemsil Silicones and Chemtec were acquired in September 2013 in Personal Care.
* Bachman Services was acquired in November 2013 in Oilfield Production Specialties.
* Independence Oilfield Chemicals was acquired in November 2014 in Oilfield Chemicals.
* Innospec divested its Aroma Chemicals business to Emerald Kalama in July 2015.
* As of January 1, 2016; Bachman, Strata and Independence Oilfield Chemicals have been reorganized into one company, Innospec Oilfield Specialties.
* On January 3, 2017, Innospec announced it had completed the acquisition of the European Differentiated Surfactants business from Huntsman
Products
Innospec markets detergents, cold flow improvers, lubricity improvers, corrosion inhibitors, antioxidants, cetane improvers, Tetraethyllead, TEL, and a range of other chemicals as fuel additives.
The Oilfield Services division provides products and services for drilling, fracturing & stimulation and production operations to customers in the oil and gas industry
In Personal Care, the company makes a range of high performance surfactants, emollients and silicone formulations.
Criminal activities
In 2007 US authorities alerted the UK SFO to Innospec's activities which had come to their attention via a UN committee and
complaint filed with SEC
involving their Iraqi agents and former company executives. On March 10, 2010, Innospec pled guilty in the U.S. to a 12-count indictment for defrauding the United Nations using kickbacks under the UN Oil for Food Program (OFFP) and making bribe payments to officials in Iraqi Oil Ministry. In addition, the company further admitted to violating the U.S. embargo against Cuba, by previously selling chemicals to Cuban industrial plants. In a 2010 investigation by ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' and Guardian Films, published in June, Innospec, while trading as company Octel, was revealed to have been bribing officials in Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
and Indonesia
Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
with millions of dollars in order to continue using TEL as a fuel additive. TEL causes brain damage in children through elevated lead levels. The investigations resulted in the convictions of four executives, three of whom were sentenced to prison. The company negotiated a global settlement, although this was condemned by Lord Justice Thomas of the UK during sentencing. In October 2014 the convictions of Miltiades Papachristos, a sales executive in the Pacific region, and Dennis Kerrison, a former CEO, for conspiracy to corrupt were upheld against appeals.
References
External links
*
Chemical companies of the United States
Companies listed on the Nasdaq
Companies based in Englewood, Colorado
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