Market & Supply 62
With most biodiesel currently traded through the Rotterdam barge market, one UK company has revealed ambitious plans to convince the UK that home grown biodiesel from waste is the way forward
Having set out to develop a ‘robust and flexible business model around low grade waste vegetable oils’, RGM Fuels (see page 6 Fuel Oil News July) is now in contract talks with several household names and fuel distributors.
“We’re at the stage of finalising volumes and prices with companies,” entrepreneur and investor Gordon McLure, told Fuel Oil News editor, Jane Hughes on a recent visit.
By combining waste with clever chemistry, Gordon, together with colleagues Dr Richard Jackson (PhD chemistry) and Dr Matthew Davies (PhD engineering), convinced investors of what RGM Fuels could bring to the market; a deal was signed with a private equity investor in 2011.
“Using a system specifically designed to process waste vegetable oils, we set out to produce biodiesel from waste to a very high standard,” added Gordon. “Developed by Richard and Matthew, our unique technology enables even very low grade vegetable oils to be processed; arguably this produces the most sustainable biodiesel available.”
High standards – convincing the market
Historically focusing on virgin seed oils, such as soy and palm oil, much investment was made in the original biofuel market, then the food v fuel debate arose and the sustainable fuel image was tarnished. An emotive topic, the food v fuel debate together with quality issues over biodiesel made from waste cooking oil in what was then a cottage industry, left a poor perception of biofuel and the industry acquired a cowboy image. Low grade feedstock led to badly made biodiesel, quality issues and fuel degradation whilst a DIY biofuels market grew up with carte blanche to make a little bit of diesel without paying any tax. Branded as unsustainable, biodiesel quality was questioned with a multitude of reasons proffered as to why it should not be used.
Distancing itself from this tarnished image has proved to be a challenge; but as companies increasingly look to support their corporate social responsibility policy, RGM Fuels reports that interest in biodiesel is growing again.
“The transition from seed to waste feedstock saw huge variations in the quality of biodiesel so there was a lot of resistance to what was seen as an unreliable product,” explained Gordon. “If made properly biodiesel from waste is totally reliable; in fact it can have standards more exact than those for mineral diesel. Once barriers have been overcome, hoops jumped and trials undertaken, we’ve been able to convince people of the product’s worth.”
Practising what it preaches, the team fuels its own vehicles with 100% biodiesel. “Presently, the B100 market is limited in the UK as the market is ignorant of its capabilities,” Matthew explained.
Down on the farm
A tree lined drive leads down to Quarry Hill Farm, the site of RGM Fuels first biodiesel plant, commissioned at the end of last year. Situated in the village of Lathbury in rural Buckinghamshire, the plant, which can produce up to 100 tonnes a day, was built as a pilot plant to prove the technology and the model.
“Setting up a biodiesel plant is not for the faint hearted. It’s easy to make biodiesel, but it’s very difficult to make biodiesel well,” said Matthew whose enthusiasm for the plant, which he likens to a giant Meccano set, is infectious.
With their specialist knowledge in chemical reactors, Matthew and Richard dismissed the expensive cracking and cooking method for esterification, favouring instead a reactor system that enables the use of a broader feedstock range which can be continually, rather than batch, processed. The system is also currently in use at plants in South Africa and in Memphis, Tennessee.
“We’ve kept the process lean and mean – new state of the art equipment sits with secondhand tanks and by speeding the process up, batch quality is more easily controlled.” Nothing is wasted with the glycerine produced in the process also sold.
“This plant was primarily set up for demonstration purposes, hence the secondhand tanks,” explained Gordon. “A new dockside plant is planned to allow us to scale up to a much larger production enabling product movements in and out by ship.” In the meantime, there are interim plans to expand the farm plant and/or buy an existing plant and convert it to run on RGM specific reactors.
“It’s amazing how things can improve when you really put your mind to it,” Mark Nicholls, general operations manager at NWF Fuels, told Fuel Oil News editor, Jane Hughes on a recent visit to the Group’s head office near Nantwich in Cheshire.
Investment at Greenergy
The last year has been a busy one for Greenergy, with major infrastructure projects at former Petroplus facilities on the Thames and at Teesside, combining with strong sales growth.
The company’s 2012/13 sales amounted to 13.5 billion litres, up 24% in volume from the previous year. Chief executive, Andrew Owens, commented: “We have won new business following the administration of Petroplus and also by expanding our supply to independent petrol retailers. We now supply independent dealer owned petrol stations under a variety of different forecourt brands, including Esso and the Nisa convenience brand.”
Greenergy acquired the former Petroplus refinery on Teesside (now named Greenergy North Tees) in July 2012 and began supplying from the site soon after. North Tees has become the company’s second supply location in the area, complementing its petrol blending facilities at the neighbouring Vopak terminal.
Andrew explained: “We can now supply customers from both Greenergy North Tees and from the Vopak terminal at Seal Sands so if ever there is an interruption of supply at one of these sites, we can seamlessly switch customers to the other. This allows us to offer our customers unparalleled resilience of supply.”
Up until the mid 1980s, oil companies in the UK were self sufficient in the ownership and management of their road tanker fleets.
In 1985 a wind of change started to blow when Amoco decided to outsource its mainline delivery operations to haulage contractor Wincanton. Since then, the outsourcing of road delivery operations has become the norm in the oil products’ supply chain, based on the rationale that it is not considered to be a core competency in an oil company’s downstream business.
Logic dictated that logistics was a task best left to those specialising in owning and operating truck fleets i.e. haulage contractors. In addition to the physical delivery operation, contractors typically provide three key supporting activities – order taking, scheduling and routing. In many instances they also provide stock reconciliations and replenishment planning/management. Taking this a stage further, contractors have deployed unbranded or white tankers to facilitate their various delivery activities, providing scope for enhanced efficiencies and cost savings.
Ingoe’s brand new Tasca tanker
Although still a young company, Rochdale-based Ingoe Oils has big ambitions. Liz Boardman spoke to managing director and company owner, Jordan Ingoe about establishing the business and his plans for future expansion.A learning curve
Having bought the Fern Street Depot and existing fuel business in 2009, former industrial boiler engineer, Jordan, has taken time to immerse himself in the industry before really pushing the company forward over the last twelve months: “I am brand new to fuels,” he admits. “The last three years have been a massive learning curve for me. Although I already held Class 1 and 2 licences I’ve had to gain the necessary health and safety qualifications and ADR training and take on more staff.”
In addition to long-standing yard manager, Chris Quint and sales manager, Stephen Gomersall, Jordan has recently taken on sales advisor, Janet Thornton and a full time tanker driver, Brian Leach, who is bringing many years of experience with him, freeing up his time and allowing him to concentrate on developing the business further along with his partner, Rebecca who is also director and company secretary. “Over the last few months we’ve had some stumbling blocks to overcome and I’ve been doing all of the deliveries, but now I have a full-time driver, I can really focus on moving the business forward and increasing deliveries over the winter.”
With 70,000 litres of storage in brand new tanks from UK Bunded Fuel Tanks, fuel is currently bunkered in by BWOC and Tate Fuels. However the company has now started pulling out of Manchester Fuel Terminal.
“Cultivating and nurturing a positive safety culture takes time and effort” says Jamie Elliott, human factors specialist, HFL Risk Services
Safety culture is essentially an organisation’s collective attitudes, values and behaviours towards safety. Put simply it is “how we do things around here” and in particular “how we do things around here when nobody’s looking.”
As companies working within the high hazard industries, oil and fuel operators’ safety policies are governed primarily by the COMAH (control of major accident hazards) regulations. Under these, operators are required to ensure that major accident risk potential remains as low as reasonably practicable. However, just because a company complies with industry safety regulations, it does not necessarily follow that it has a positive safety culture.
A staged progression – individuals, frontline workers, managers, directors and the board
Safety culture is often described as progressing through a series of stages. Early stages of safety culture maturity involve a focus on technical and procedural solutions to safety problems. When an incident occurs, the aim is often to find out who was involved.
As the organisation matures, managers increasingly realise that a wide range of factors cause accidents and that the root causes often originate from management decisions. This is where knowledge of human factors plays a key role. By understanding the individual, job and organisational factors that influence frontline workers’ performance, we can analyse individual human failures and determine what can be done to prevent them recurring. This moves the focus away from the individual who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, to look at what managers can do.
At higher levels of safety culture maturity, both frontline workers and managers co-operate proactively to prevent accidents and their root causes. So managers and frontline staff can drive safety culture from the bottom up by improving understanding of human and organisational factors throughout the organisation.
However, there is growing recognition that safety culture needs to be driven from the boardroom. Moreover employers in high hazard industries are increasingly being called upon to demonstrate organisational competence in process safety management. The UK Health & Safety Executive states that ‘Directors and boards need to examine their own behaviours, both individually and collectively’. Business leaders need to get out and talk to staff at all levels about process safety.
Setting Process Safety Performance Indicators (PSPIs) can be a structured way to do this. To be able to have these conversations, leaders need to have sufficient understanding of process safety including the root causes of accidents. If this is lacking then a first step is often to improve process safety competence at senior levels, not just in operations but also business support functions such as maintenance, HR, finance and quality at site and group level, as well as amongst non-executive directors.
Taking the time and effort to cultivate and nurture a positive safety culture will pay dividends not only in terms of overall site safety, but also in profitability since the two are very closely linked.
HFL Risk Services, which took part in last month’s Tank Storage Association exhibition and conference, offers nationally recognised qualifications for continuous improvement in process safety for senior managers and senior executives. www.hflrisk.com
European diesel and heating oil prices will be supported by a heavy autumn refinery maintenance schedule that is already prompting some interest to store product. But storage economics are looking uneconomic going forward, threatening thin cover for the winter, writes Chris Judge, senior products editor at Argus Media.
Whilst faltering economic growth in Europe in general, and in the UK in particular may improve diesel demand, the picture across Europe is still not encouraging for sellers.
The first half of 2013
Over the first half of the year diesel demand limped along, rarely achieving the margins sellers had hoped for at the start of the year, despite short episodes of market tightness. The weak demand in Europe is underlined by car sales that have been falling almost continuously for nearly two years, with supply boosted by refinery upgrades. More spot diesel volumes were expected from Spain and Greece, while Israel’s ORL started up a new 25,000 b/d hydrocracker at its Haifa refinery, Portugal’s Galp launched its own 43,000 b/d hydrocracker, and a slew of Russian refineries worked on expanded diesel production.
Nagging concerns over margins meant that European refineries – particularly those in the Mediterranean – continually trimmed output, keeping buyers on their toes, especially through the summer months.
Heavily reliant on imports
Refinery maintenance dominates on the supply side with weak motor fuel demand dominating on the demand side. A key source of winter diesel, Swedish refiner Preem’s 220,000 b/d refinery in Lysekil, Sweden, closed last month for six weeks of scheduled maintenance. Also on the docket for autumn works are Exxon’s 246,000 b/d refinery in Antwerp and unspecified units at BP’s 400,000 b/d Rotterdam refinery, and a variety of key Russian plants.
The UK is heavily reliant on imports from Europe following the closure of Russian product exports are expected to fall sharply from September to November as a result. The total capacity loss is forecast at 5.4mn t, with most of the cut coming in September-October, compared with 3.75mn t off line during the 2012 turnarounds.
Demand concerns persist. The seasonal downturn in driving and agricultural consumption is compounded by weak economic growth in Europe and forecasts that western Europe’s automotive market will not begin to grow again until at least 2019. That said, demand figures for the first half of 2013 were mixed. In much of northern Europe demand continues to grow, albeit at unspectacular rates – up 3% year on year in the first half in Germany and up by 2% in the first five months in Sweden. Troubled Mediterranean Europe saw drops of 6% in the first five months in Spain and 3.3% in Italy.
While traders and refiners expect the maintenance programme to provide support, it does not match the abrupt loss of 600,000 b/d of refining capacity with the insolvency of European refiner Petroplus early in 2012, when autumn premiums to the benchmark Ice gasoil surged to nearly $60/t and diesel’s crack spread against Brent surpassed $25/bl.
With the sale of all but one of the Petroplus refineries – the 146,000 b/d Petit Couronne in France seems doomed to permanent closure – most of the company’s former capacity is now back on stream. And, despite the general agreement that there is refining overcapacity in Europe, optimism over longer run prospects for diesel is driving plans for capacity additions; Italy’s ENI has already restarted its idled 105,000 b/d Gela refinery in Sicily. The company has also announced a €700mn investment plan, including diesel maximisation, in a bid to return the loss-making plant to profit.
Pete George, managing director, UK and Ireland marketing with Lindsay Grant, former manager, national sales, who will shortly be talking up a new role at Phillips 66’s Houston headquarters
Pete George, Phillips 66
“Phillips 66 plays a key role in providing a secure supply of petroleum products to the UK markets via its Humber Refinery. We are very pleased that the recent Energy and Climate Change Committee Inquiry: UK Oil Refining recognised the importance of oil products and UK refining to the UK’s economy. The report supported many of the recommendations that Phillips 66 made to ensure that UK oil refineries have a level playing field versus their international competition. In particular, the report recommended that:
Indigenous refinery production v inland market demand
Since 2000, diesel imports have risen from 16% of inland consumption to 44% and kerosene from 33% to 54%. By contrast, the share of motor spirit production exported has risen from 20% to 49% and that for fuel oil (including international marine bunkers) has increased from 55% to 95%. Exacerbating the motor spirit imbalance has been an increased import share, from 11% to 32%, which reflects the much expanded presence of the importing/wholesaling companies in the transport fuel sector (also a contributory factor in the rise of diesel imports).
Looking at the wider issue of import dependency, it is noteworthy that expert witness testimony to the recent Commons Energy & Climate Change Committee report was in broad agreement that a mix of domestically refined and imported products was essential for security of supply, the respective proportions being best determined by the market. So, the Committee advised DECC that, in its review, it should take an approach that reflects the integrated nature of indigenous refiners and importers as well as associated ancillary industries.
Is there substantive cause for concern?
Detailed below, the extensive physical infrastructure has been in place for many years, during which time it has been subject to much rationalisation. While enabling comprehensive market reach, it also has a commendable record of providing both security and continuity of supply, as well as helping the country to meet its compulsory stocking obligations.
The consequences, in terms of product supply dislocation, arising from disablement of the key Buncefield terminal in December 2005, bore testimony to the system’s resilience. That is not to say that there are not points of potential vulnerability; should there be loss of supply out of the Fawley refinery, the consequences for the South, the UK’s largest inland market region, are by far the most significant. The DECC review, to be completed by year end, is awaited with interest!
Reliable equipment ensures the safe delivery of fuels to Callow’s rural customers across Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire and Oxfordshire
Callow Oils new Lakeland tanker features discharge equipment from Alpeco.
Director James Callow chose Alpeco’s dry line metering system with TE550 unit which automatically closes the manifold before finishing the delivery and triggers an automated blow down of the hose when the delivery ticket is printed, minimising the possibility of contamination.
“We specify Alpeco for several reasons,” explained James. “The product range offers technical excellence and reliability at a competitive price, whilst the sales and design staff are always available to discuss another project with us.” The new truck joins the distributor’s extensive modern fleet which is all fitted with Alpeco products.
Adrian Baskott, Alpeco’s sales director, added. “I’ve long believed that good products almost sell themselves but that said, we never rest on our laurels. We invest a lot of time and money in developing better products and services. The company is also a great believer in training its staff to be responsive to clients’ needs. Long term relationships help enormously as we better understand the clients’ business and how they work. We are proud to have been nominated yet again to supply product for the latest Callow Oils delivery tanker.”
Oil customers should get their boiler checked annually by an OFTEC registered technician and fit a carbon monoxide detector in their home says OFTEC’s Malcolm Farrow
This year’s Carbon Monoxide Awareness Week starts next Monday. To reduce any risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, oil consumers are being urged to get their boilers checked by an OFTEC registered technician before winter sets in.
A laundering plant capable of producing more than 16.4 million litres of illegal fuel a year, and potentially evading around £10.6m in taxes and duty, has been dismantled by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).
Officers from HMRC, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) and the Police Service of Northern Ireland discovered the plant within a tank storage area in Crossmaglen, South Armagh and seized 73,000 litres of fuel. Two tankers, one transit van, and over and underground tanks were also seized, whilst 20 tonnes of toxic waste, which was also found at the site, is being dealt with by the NIEA.
John Whiting, assistant director, criminal investigation, HMRC, said: “Every illegal laundering operation typically generates tonnes of toxic waste, involving significant safety and environmental issues. As taxpayers and local ratepayers, not only are we missing out on the stolen tax that ends up the pockets of the criminals, we are also paying the substantial clean-up and disposal costs.
“Buying illicit fuel funds crime and supports and encourages these dangerous activities within our communities. The only winners are the criminals. I would urge anyone with information on fuel misuse in their area to contact our free telephone hotline on 0800 59 5000 and contribute to the fight against this criminality.”
A positive year for the company, despite challenging conditions says CEO, John Sutton
Suttons Group recently reported a 4.1% increase in revenue to £154.7m for the year ending 30th April 2013.
Despite adverse economic conditions in Europe and the US, the Group continued to grow as a result of its range of services and the geographical diversity of its operations. Sutton’s focus on efficiency and utilisation also led to operating profit growth of 7.1% to £8.4m.
The company’s UK division, incorporating road tankers, warehousing and drumming operations, saw growth from new and existing customers. The Group also replaced a number of its vehicles and road tankers, representing a considerable investment in the future development of the Road Tankers division.
CEO, John Sutton, said: “This last year has been positive for the Group. We have increased our turnover, margin and operating profit despite challenging conditions. We have also invested significantly in both our UK road tanker and international ISO tank fleets, ensuring our customers continue to receive the highest standards of service in the industry.
“Highlights of the year include new business wins and contract extensions for our UK Tankers Division, significant progress in Asia and an important contract for our joint venture Suttons Arabia.”
Chairman of the executive board, Hervé Montjotin, reports an ‘encouraging increase’ in Norbert Dentressangle’s business activities
Norbert Dentressangle reported revenues of €2,959 million for the first nine months of 2013, up 2% on the previous year.
Hervé Montjotin, chairman of the executive board, said: “In line with expectations, Norbert Dentressangle is reporting an encouraging increase in its business activities for the first 9 months of 2013, primarily driven by a return to growth in the 3rd quarter.
“In particular, our Group is taking advantage of its now significant exposure to economies which are growing at a faster rate than that of France. The transport business returned to growth in the 3rd quarter. The logistics business reported robust growth which is accelerating thanks to a sound commercial momentum in its European markets, the launch of the businesses with our customer Danone in Saudi Arabia and in Russia, and the consolidation of Fiege’s businesses in Italy and Spain.”
A ‘balancing role’
From its early days in the late 19th century, the companies which we associate with the oil industry have become household names – Exxon, Shell, BP, Chevron, Total, etc. These vertically integrated international oil companies (IOCs) have been joined by state owned concerns, or national oil companies ( NOCd )- names such as Aramco, Kuwait Petroleum, IPC, NIOC, Petrobras, PDVSA, as well as Russian companies such as GazpromNeft, Lukoil and Rosneft. More recent additions have been the three Chinese giants, Petrochina, Sinopec and CNOOC.
Less well known and with a generally lower profile have been the oil trading companies. Their principal raison d’etre and continued existence has been in playing the critical role of balancing supply and demand, for both crude oil and refined products. The need for this role was heightened from the early 1970s, as vertically integrated supply chains became less secure and geographical imbalances began to emerge, in particular the growing US deficit in both crude oil and gasoline. In the 1970s/80s some of the activities of oil trading companies attracted controversy, and criticism e.g. Phibro (Tom O’Malley and Andy Hall) and Marc Rich (now absorbed into Glencore).
The sector is now dominated by 6 companies – Vitol, Gunvor, Trafigura, GlencoreXstrata, Mercuria and Cargill – all of whom are global traders in the wider commodities’ spectrum.
With the exception of Glencore, these are all privately owned companies and, in terms of scale, are very substantial operations. Taking the largest of the group, Vitol, which was established in 1966, its total deliveries of crude oil and refined oil products in 2012 amounted to 261 million mt, which exceeds the combined inland oil demand of Germany, France and Italy. Looked at from another perspective, it represents almost four times the UK’s 2012 inland oil consumption!
Tougher times
Recent years have seen oil trading becoming more competitive and the market more transparent; in addition, the environment for trading has often been unfavourable, being in a state of backwardation, with prompt prices higher than future levels, rather than contango, where future values are higher. The latter condition creates time-related arbitrage opportunities for traders. This less favourable environment is reflected in recent financial performance. Vitol’s reported 2012 net income was $1.05 billion vs. $2.28 billion in 2009. Gunvor’s reported 2012 net income was $318 million vs. $621 million in 2009.
How are they responding to this challenge?
As a sector, the principal response has been characterised by moves to invest in physical assets – such as oilfields, refineries, storage facilities and fuels/lubricants’ marketing businesses.
Vitol established a joint venture company with Helios Investment Partners, called Vivo Energy, in 2011, which acquired the majority share (80%) of fuels/lubes marketing businesses in 14 African countries from Shell ( which retained a 20% interest) and acts as a Shell brand licensee in these countries. The company has in recent years also established a presence in the aviation fuels market, now supplying a total of 2.5 million mt at 46 airports worldwide (including Heathrow, Stansted and Manchester). Last year it acquired the former Petroplus Cressier refinery in Switzerland, along with the associated pipeline, storage and marketing assets in a joint transaction with Atlasinvest.
Trafigura is the majority (80%) owner of Puma Energy, an oil marketing, storage and distribution venture, which is represented in Africa, Central America & Caribbean, Southeast Asia and Australia. Last year, Trafigura acquired Ion Equity’s stake in Blue Ocean Associates., parent company of Harvest Energy, and became joint majority owner of the company along with Denis O’Brien’s investment vehicle, Baycliffe.
In 2012 Gunvor acquired the former Petroplus refineries in Belgium (Antwerp) and Germany (Ingolstadt); crude oil processing operations have resumed at both plants, enabling the company to establish a footprint in the inland marketplace of both countries.
These are examples of diversification away from the core activity of oil trading, into activities where their established expertise and competencies can be applied to good effect and which are complementary with the principal, core business.
As the downstream oil sector continues to experience change, both to structure and ownership, I think that we will witness more instances of the oil trading companies spreading their wings to extend and expand their participation where attractive opportunities present themselves.
“Quite simply yes,” said Simon Wood, Mercedes-Benz UK
As the domestic market tails off over the summer months, for many distributors, it is their agricultural business that picks up speed. Below Liz Boardman looks at this market’s seasonal peaks and troughs and asks whether agricultural shows are still the best place to do business.
A changing market?
An important sector for Fuel Additive Science Technologies (FAST), agriculture accounts for 15% of its overall business.
FAST manufactures a number of agricultural products including fuel upgrade, Gas Oil Extra; fuel soluble biocide, Anti Bug; fuel stabiliser, Fuel Store Plus; and online injector and fuel system cleaner, Diesel Power Restorer.
Neil Ryding, FAST’s managing director, believes that the market has seen a significant shift in the last few years: “In January 2011, the market changed hugely as the sulphur content of red diesel was reduced to a level matching white diesel, and the allowable biodiesel content was increased. This has had a knock-on effect on fuel performance in modern engines and fuel storage conditions.”
“The market has changed dramatically,” agrees Consols Oils managing director, Kevin Bennetts. “Fewer of the larger farms are using bigger volumes, whilst very aggressive competition has degraded margins and service levels. Good service is paramount and is winning the war of attrition – treat customers fairly and most will reciprocate.”
In Cumbria, however, the market has been relatively static, as Carrs Billington’s Derek Wallace reports: “I don’t think the market has changed too much; although an increasing number of agricultural contractors are doing more of the seasonal work. With bigger equipment, they can get the job done within a day or two of fine weather.”
Managing peaks and troughs
Whilst traditionally summer and autumn are the busiest times for the farming community, FAST supplies product all year round; although there is a marked increase in demand from July to October.
With five depots spread across the north of England, Carrs Billington experiences demand at different times, in different areas. ”Our Hexham depot supplies more gas oil at harvest time due to the number of arable farms and better harvest conditions, whilst Cumbria’s better suited to growing grass and is busiest at silage time in late May and June, and again at the end of summer,” explains Derek.
At Cornish distributor Consols Oils, volumes peak at harvest times. “Service levels are crucial, but fuel is always being used so life goes on. Fortunately there’s usually a very clear division between peak gas oil volumes and heating oil demand,” adds Kevin.
Insurance issues
Andrew Dix, partnerships manager at OAMPS, believes: “There are many risks involved in the distribution and haulage of fuel. Whilst there is the fear of an accident on the road, there is also the additional risk of a product spill or crossover and it is crucial to consider the safety of your staff. Ensuring that insurance policies are suitable is a major responsibility for companies.
“There are a number of specific issues for fuel distributors or hauliers to consider when purchasing insurance.
The installation of the giant new regenerator head will give the refinery unit another 25 years of life
Essar Oil (UK) recently completed the successful lift of a giant new regenerator head for a key petrol producing unit at its Stanlow refinery.
Part of a £23 million refurbishment project, the 428 tonne steel head was lifted 225 feet before being guided into position on the refinery’s flagship residue catalytic cracking unit – the largest of its kind in Europe. The operation was completed in just over five hours, using a 335 ft tall crane with a 1,500 tonne counterweight for the lift.
The regenerator head, complete with refractory lining and cyclones, is the largest that has been fabricated and transported in the world. It is a key element of the residue catalytic cracking unit, vital to Stanlow’s annual production of three billion litres of petrol. Its installation will give the refinery unit another 25 years of life.
Chief executive officer, Volker Schultz, said: “This is another major investment in the refinery and part of our strategic plan to ensure we can be sustainably profitable and growing moving forward. The lift was a complicated piece of engineering and I want to pay tribute to everyone involved that it was completed safely and ahead of schedule.”
There was a warm welcome for Jet authorised distributors at Phillips 66’s 2013 conference
Earlier this month Phillips 66 welcomed customers – including authorised distributors – to its 2013 conference at Gleneagles, Scotland.
Pete George, managing director of UK & Ireland marketing reiterated the company’s commitment to the market: “We recognise that we operate in an increasingly competitive market, but we have big ambitions and we wanted to use Gleneagles as an opportunity to reassure our wholesale customers that we are here to stay.”
Refining and large-scale investment in cleaner fuels were also on the conference agenda.Read more about the event in the November issue of Fuel Oil News.