OFTEC’S new chief executive is to be Paul Rose.
Currently OFTEC’s technical director, Paul will take up the position on 1st August 2016 following Jeremy Hawksley’s retirement at the end of July.
Paul has worked in a number of technical roles for the organisation since 2005. He was appointed as chief executive following a competitive selection process during which external candidates were interviewed.
Commenting on the appointment OFTEC chairman, Nick Hawkins, said: “Paul is very well known in the oil heating sector having been technical director at OFTEC since 2011.
“He represents OFTEC on a number of national and European technical panels relating to heating. Paul is a member of the Chartered Management Institute, Institute of Domestic Heating and Environmental Engineers (IDHEE), and is a UKAS technical assessor in the area of ‘certification of persons,’ a route to registering with a competent persons scheme.
“The Board is confident that Paul is the right person to take OFTEC forward and to ensure that oil heating and cooking has a bright future.”
www.oftec.org
As a winner, Fairbanks can use The Queen’s Award Emblem in advertising, marketing and on packaging for a period of five years as a symbol of their quality and success
Last week on Her Majesty’s 90th birthday Fairbanks was crowned winner of the 2016 Queen’s Award for Enterprise.
This award is recognised as the UKs highest accolade for business success and it was in the International Trade category that Fairbanks has excelled, with its exponential growth worldwide.
Fairbanks provides fuel monitoring and management services to the downstream fuel retail industry. Its services have been adopted by the majority of independent UK forecourts, as well as by major clients such as Tesco, Shell and BP, both nationally and internationally. In addition, Fairbanks has 6 licensees, the most recent being Canada and South Africa.
“This is a very proud day for everyone at Fairbanks and Steve Jones and I would like to thank all of our 200 staff for their loyalty and commitment; without them none of this would have been possible,” said Bob Conlin, joint managing director.
“This honour, received in our 20th year of business, formally endorses the many years of work everyone has put in to make this business what it is today. The service we offer ensures that the people living and working around forecourts are protected and our environment is safeguarded for future generations. This mark of excellence will help the business increase its market share and open doors into new territories such as India and the Americas, generating further jobs in Lancashire.”
For over 50 years, the Queen’s Award for Enterprise has acknowledged outstanding achievement in international trade, highlighting substantial growth in overseas earnings and commercial success. Fairbanks will be celebrating this exceptional achievement with an open day during the summer, which will be attended by local dignitaries including Charles Kay-Shuttleworth, the Lord Lieutenant for Lancashire, who will present the award on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen.www.fairbanksglobal.com
Ian Ross centre with Graham Smerdon (l), Pen Underwriting and FPS president Duncan Grant
Chosen for his ‘truly extraordinary customer commitment’ Ian Ross from NWF Fuels Wardle depot in Cheshire has taken the title of 2016 FPS Driver of the Year
CLH-PS currently supplies airports at Heathrow (pictured above), Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester
Recognising the outstanding contribution of a Spanish company in the UK, an Annual Golden Award is made by the London-based Spanish Chamber of Commerce each year.
This year the CLH Group, which created the CLH Pipeline System (CLH-PS) to manage the UK’s Government Pipeline Storage System (GPSS) acquired last May, is the recipient. The GPSS acquisition was the first investment carried out by CLH in a European country and the second at an international level following the creation of a joint venture in Oman in 2014.
“This prize recognises the extraordinary effort made by CLH to perform an operation of this status,” explained Salvador Guillén, CLH Group managing director. “The acquisition represented an increase of 50% of the pipeline network that the CLH Group has in Spain.”
CLH-PS has now embarked on a £90 million programme of modernisation of assets and the implementation of advanced technologies which is expected to take until December 2018.
“This level of investment shows the commitment of the CLH Group to become the leader in the safe and efficient distribution of liquid fuel in the UK,” said CLH-PS chairman, Juan Bonilla. “We must not forget that, at the moment, CLH-PS is the only independent network in the UK dedicated to the storage and distribution of jet fuel through pipelines.”
CLH-PS currently supplies fuel to Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester airports in addition to the UK Ministry of Defence. The CLH Group has recently been awarded the operation and renovation of the fuel storage terminal at Dublin Airport with a new company – CLH Aviation Ireland – created to manage these infrastructures.www.clh.es/clhps/staff/section.cfm?id=1&side=2349&lang=en
The 4th international experience exchange programme – Oil Terminal Management: Logistics for Traders – takes place in Amsterdam from 1-3 June 2016.
This workshop series focuses on ports and terminals, traders and major oil companies, logistics companies and service providers who need to get up-to-date knowledge of terminal design, new technologies and features of this market.
The programme includes on-site visits to terminals – the Ports of Amsterdam and Rotterdam and the terminals of Royal Vopak Europort, Botlek Tank and Oiltanking Amsterdam B.V. at Odfjell Rotterdam.
On the second day there will be a networking session with key personnel from terminals and ports with Louis Monninkhof, business development director at the Port of Rotterdam and Port of Amsterdam’s head of cluster energy, Femke Brenninkmeijer both speaking. Gordon McManus, research director, refining & oil product markets at Wood Mackenzie and Ciaran Roe, Analytic, Platts will also be presenting.
Leaders from the following terminals will also be present
l-r Tommy Vickers, HOYER operations manager Valero Into-plane operation with members of the driving team – Joe Gilmore, Des Byrne, Trevor Blanche, John Stynes, Greg Byrne and Karl Burke – Dublin airport
HOYER Petrolog has retained its Into-Plane refuelling operation with Valero at Dublin airport with a three-year extension to its current deal.
Allan Davison, operations director said: “The extension of this contract is excellent news for HOYER and secures a strategically important piece of business within Ireland.
“Our excellent relationship with Valero extends back to 2000 and we are excited about the opportunities the next three years offers.”
The contract involves refuelling planes during all hours of airport operation and involves 10 refuelling vehicles and 28 staff.
In March 2016 HOYER took over the task of delivering to more than 200 TOTAL service stations in West and North Germany; since February the company has also been supplying TOTAL fuels to stations in Bremen and in the Ruhr district and Emsland region.
The first in a series of diesel shipments are now being stored on site at Thames Oilport. A joint venture between Greenergy and Shell, Greenergy now owns two thirds with Shell retaining its one third shareholding
Last Wednesday (6th April) Thames Oilport took receipt of the first in a series of diesel shipments to be stored on site. The arrival of these shipments is a major milestone that brings fuel into the terminal for the first time since the closure of the Coryton refinery.
The development of Thames Oilport is being carried out in phases. The current phase brings into use 176,000 cbm of tankage, which Greenergy will use for diesel storage to take advantage of the contango market conditions. It follows extensive refucrbishment of tanks in the east part of the site ranging in size from 24-39,000 cbm, as well as redevelopment and automation of a complex pumping exchange and a network of piping connecting the tanks to the Thames jetty. At this stage of Thames Oilport’s development, fuel is being moved into and out of the terminal by ship.
The works have been carried out by the team employed at Thames Oilport, supported by contractors carrying out a range of specialist functions including engineering, fabrication, cable installation, piping modifications and tank repair. This site-experienced team will now continue to work to complete the next phase, adding a further 64,000 cbm of sotage by the third quarter of 2016.
“Everyone here is delighted to have oil back on the site at last,” said Chris Brookhouse, chief executive of Thames Oilport who joined Greenergy in January 2105 as director of infrastructure.
“There has been a lot of activity to prepare for this day and there’s a lot more still to do. We have a route-map to continue to develop the facility, and we’ll be bringing more tankage into use by the end of the year and adding more capability thereafter.”www.greenergy.com
More calls for a boiler scrappage scheme to improve air quality. Photo: andykirby79
A broader boiler scrappage scheme is being recommended to improve air quality, following a recently published report from Policy Exchange and King’s College London.
Recognising the benefit of the Boris Boilers scheme launched in February 2016, the report said this welcome start needed to be expanded and refocused in order to maximise benefits in terms of air quality.
The report Up In The Air: How to Solve London’s Air Quality Crisis: Part 2’ suggests a scrappage scheme with a target of replacing 500,000 boilers in London by 2020 and for all boilers to meet the ultra low NOx by 2025.
The suggestion was welcomed by the Heating & Hot Water Industry Council where director Stewart Clements, said: “Despite its significance, combustion from boilers and cookers has until now, rarely been considered when discussing air quality. We know that there are approximately 9 million inefficient boilers in UK homes, contributing to both carbon emissions and poor air quality.
“The delivery of boiler scrappage schemes is tried, tested and successful. This new report recognises this and advocates the creation of a robust boiler scrappage scheme. It calls for grants to be offered to homes and business to upgrade their heating systems. I hope this new report will assist in kick starting a proper and full debate on air pollution and its effects.”
Fuel Oil News is disappointed to report that although Boris included both oil and gas boilers in his scrappage scheme, this one seems to focus only on the latter…. .http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/publications/category/item/up-in-the-air-how-to-solve-london-s-air-quality-crisis-part-2
Formed by Macquarie Capital and Greenergy earlier this year, Navigator Terminals offers customers unique storage solutions for crude, petroleum, chemicals, liquefied gas, bitumen and biofuel products at strategic locations at major UK ports including Seal Sands on Teesside pictured here
Navigator Terminals has completed the acquisition of Royal Vopak’s UK facilities at West Thurrock (Thames), Seal Sands (Teesside) and Windmill (Barry, South Wales) and Greenergy North Tees from Greenergy.
Through these acquisitions, Navigator has an initial storage capacity of approximately 1.5 million cubic metres, making it the UK’s largest independent bulk liquid storage provider.
Ian Cochrane has been appointed chief executive of the new venture. He joins from Vopak UK where he was managing director and brings over 40 years’ experience in the global oil and chemical industries. He will be working with an experienced team managing the terminals and ensuring that the company maintains and improves on the services delivered to existing and future customers.
Following the completion of the acquisition, Ian said: “Our priority is to ensure the safe and efficient operation of our facilities and to provide the highest levels of quality and customer service.
“We will continue to invest in infrastructure to enable us to maintain these priorities and ensure our customers are able to grow and succeed with Navigator.”www.navigatorterminals.com
“We continue to innovate, adapt and improve: we continue to focus on the detail and we continue to care,” said Gerald Ronson who recently celebrated 50 years in the retail industrySuzanne Plunkett 2016©.
With a mantra of retail is detail Gerald Ronson launched his first Heron branded petrol station in St Albans on 24th March 1966; last week he held a lunch to celebrate his 50-year milestone in retail.
“What we created in 1966 was revolutionary,” said Gerald who is now in his late seventies has since built over 1,000 service stations.
“Our combination of service, quality and low prices meant that when we opened our first station in St Albans in 1966, we had queues of cars for half a mile waiting to fill up at four shillings and 10 pence (old money) a gallon.”
Rontec, which incorporates Snax24, now operates over 220 sites across England and Wales and has a £1 billion plus turnover.
It was Ronson’s acquisition of Total UK’s retail network of 810 service stations that signalled his return to the sector in scale. Having made the acquisition, Rontec immediately sold non-core elements – DCC took 300 wholesale sites, the railheads went back to Total with UK pipelines sold to Valero. Shell took 254 retail sites leaving Rontec with 250 sites plus cash.
“When I started there were around 38,000 filling stations in the UK; now there are fewer than 9,000, with just four remaining in central London,” said Gerald.
“Petrol retailing is in my DNA, and whilst it is my hobby, it is a business that I am deadly serious about,” said Gerald.
“I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved but watch this space because our journey is not over yet.”www.rontec.com
