Spotlight 32
The importance of women in energy event was co-chaired by US deputy secretary of energy, Dr Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall (l) and Louise Kingham OBE FEI, Energy Institute chief executive
Last week the Energy Institute and POWERful Women hosted a roundtable discussion on ‘The importance of women in energy’ to address the barriers facing women working in the global energy sector.
The Energy Institute’s president-elect Malcolm Brinded looks forward to the ‘exhilarating task’
Malcolm Brinded CBE FREng FEI has taken on the role of president-elect at the Energy Institute (EI).
Members of the State Oil team attended the event which took place at Mercedes-Benz World in Weybridge
The State Oil Group – parent of Harvest Energy and Prax Petroleum – was amongst the finalists at the Surrey Super Growth Awards held earlier this month.
Full of energy – the Craggs Energy 50 milers who recently raised £2,701.27 for charity
Last month 13 members of the Craggs Energy team laced up their walking boots and took to the hills above Calderdale and raised £2,701.27.
Phillips 66 and JET sponsored a successful children’s concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall
Phillips 66 and JET certainly had a night to remember when they sponsored a ground breaking children’s concert at the Royal Albert Hall last month. Organised by Warwickshire-based music and education charity Armonico Consort (AC) in partnership with the Royal Albert Hall, the concert saw 2,000 children from mainstream and special needs schools unite to perform on stage.
(l-r) Jeremy Hawksley, Nick Hawkins and Paul Rose
As OFTEC marks 25 years of raising standards in the heating industry, its focus remains firmly on the future.
News of the new openings – a Welsh office in Carmarthenshire for Envirostore and a depot in Ammanford for Star Multifuels was announced on the Envirostore stand at FPS EXPO 2016 in Liverpool. (L-r) Richard Marsh with Shane Williams and Andrew Lacey both of Star Multifuels
Envirostore UK and Star Multifuels have both opened new premises in Wales.
“It’s great that the team got to meet Gareth,” said Certas Energy’s regional manager Alex Ward. “His career demonstrates that through hard work and persistence anything is possible in your career.”
Apprentices on the Certas Energy apprenticeship scheme recently met with Gareth Unwin, the Oscar-winning producer of The King’s Speech in 2010.
James Givens (l) winner of the first prize in HOYER’s 2016 driver of the year competition with Mark Binns, MD of HOYER Petrolog
Three drivers working at Kingsbury and Stanlow took the top prizes in HOYER’s 2016 driver of the year competition
Last month Skelmersdale-based Fairbanks, provider of fuel management services to the retail and commercial fuelling industry was acquired by OPW.
Richard Baker – ‘a key appointment for MFG as it drives ahead with strengthening its retail offering’
Top 50 Indies forecourt operator, Motor Fuel Group (MFG) has appointed Richard Baker as its new retail director.
Craggs Energy has recently taken delivery of a new six-wheeler tanker built by West Yorkshire tanker manufacturer, Tasca Tankers
On Friday 17th June, 15 members of the Craggs Energy team will embark on a 50-mile walk around Calderdale in under 24-hours.
A previous Armonico Consort event at the Royal Albert Hall – one of the charity’s main aims is to nurture a love of singing and performance in young people who might otherwise not be exposed to performing arts
Next Tuesday (14th June) Phillips 66 will be sponsoring a ground breaking children’s concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London when 25 employees will also take to the stage.
Major initiatives at Essar’s Stanlow refinery have seen a hydrocarbon margin improvement of +$3/bbl in the last four years, taking its margin to + $5/bbl compared to the North West Europe benchmark. The refiner also entered the UK’s fuel retail market and has plans to grow its network to 400 sites over the next three years
Stanlow Refinery owner Essar Oil (UK) has announced its best ever financial results, for the year ending March 31st 2016.
Bapco – the Bahrain Petroleum Company – is to establish a regional gasoline blending hub with Greenergy. Bahrain Gasoline Blending (BGB) is set to meet local and regional demand for gasoline blend components.
Visitors will also have the chance to meet JET’s ambassador, racing driver Nicolas Hamilton, who will chat about his racing experience and his tireless campaigning to encourage everyone to Exceed Expectations. Nicolas, whose brother is Lewis Hamilton, lives with cerebral palsy
Following the success of its original three-year sponsorship deal, JET is to extend its role as official fuel partner to the Silverstone Classic for a further three years, through until 2019.
For this year’s event, which takes place from 29th to 31st July, JET has teamed up with Vital Equipment, suppliers of high quality fuels and lubricants for the motorsport industry, to provide two refuelling stations for competitors. This is Vital Equipment’s first venture into classic sports car events, having already established a respected reputation in the nation’s GT, TT, rallying and touring car events.
JET’s village green and fun fair will return again this year with the addition of sponsorship for the event’s iconic big wheel. The village green will also include family entertainment, children’s rides, chill out zones, crazy golf and a range of food and drink options.
“We’re delighted and very proud to be part of the continued success of what is without doubt, one of the world’s biggest – and best – classic motor racing festivals,” commented Mary Wolf, managing director, UK & Ireland marketing for Phillips 66. We’re also very excited to be taking on the title sponsorship of the Super Touring Car Championship races at this year’s event as part of our sponsorship.”
In June, JET will launch its unique Silverstone Classic ‘Money Can’t Buy Prize’ for two lucky individuals. This prize will include full hospitality and accommodation over the weekend, £500 spending money, and high adrenalin on and off-track experiences. Details of how to enter the competition will be available at www.jetsc.co.uk.
The MechTronic cyclist team – Ryan, Chris, Phil, Brad and Ben
Earlier this month a team of cyclists from MechTronic took part in the Maserati Tour de Yorkshire Ride, a 119km charity bike ride in aid of the RNLI which was completed in just four and a half hours.
Setting off from Scarborough the team endured heavy rain and windy conditions although the sun did make an appearance as they cycled through some of the picturesque Yorkshire countryside.
A particular highlight of the ride was the iconic Côte de Harwood Dale climb. Coming 13.4km into the ride, this is a tough 1.3km climb with an average gradient of 7.4% and a challenging maximum gradient of 16%.
“This is the second year we’ve completed the ride,” said team member Ryan.
“Although our legs were still hurting a couple of days later, it was worth all the pain for such a fantastic cause and we’re already looking forward to doing the race again next year!”
In the meantime, the next challenges for the MechTronic team are the Great Yorkshire Bike Ride – 70-miles from Wetherby to Filey on 18th June – and the York 100 on 14th August which will see the team cycle 100 miles across the North Yorkshire countryside.mechtronic.ltd.uk
“It has always been a pleasure working in the bulk liquid storage industry,” says Richard Sammons who retired at the end of April
After more than 30 years of dedicated service, Richard Sammons stepped down from his role as executive chairman of Inter Terminals at the end of April.
Richard started with Simon Storage as finance director in April 1986 before progressing to chief executive from 2006 to 2014.
“I am delighted in the progress achieved within Inter Terminals,” commented Richard.
“From its beginnings as a UK terminal operator, Inter Terminals has become one of the largest terminal networks in Europe with subsidiaries in Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Ireland.
“I wish Martyn Lyons, CEO and his executive team and workforce every success for the future.”www.InterTerminals.com
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
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
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
THIS YEAR PUMA ENERGY MADE ITS ENTRANCE INTO THE UK’S BITUMEN AND WHOLESALE MARKETS.
LIKE BING CROSBY IN THAT CHRISTMAS PERENNIAL MANY FUEL DISTRIBUTORS ARE DREAMING OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS….