News 57
The next phase of regeneration at Thames OilPort, which recently opened for diesel and gasoil, will enable petrol storage and road supply
On Monday (24th April) Greenergy began road-loading of diesel and heating oil at Thames Oilport, giving it a new and strategically important supply location in the south east of England.
The opening of road loading facilities is another significant milestone in the regeneration of the site, to turn the former refinery into a modern import terminal capable of meeting growing fuel demand in the south east.
Twelve months ago Thames Oilport received its first shipments of diesel and opened for ship-in/ ship-out storage. This allowed us to benefit from contango market conditions and at year end we had more than 250 million litres of diesel stored at the facility.
Over the last year additional refurbishment has included upgraded automated road-loading facilities, new driver facilities, work on new additive systems and a new control system, which together allow the tankage to also be used for diesel and gasoil throughput and truck loading.
“The regeneration of Thames Oilport continues to be a key development project for Greenergy,” said chief executive Andrew Owens.
“Thames OilPort provides capacity for expansion and improved supply resilience in the busy south east region, an area of population and demand growth.
“As we expand our sales from the facility, we will have the ability to receive product on larger ships onto Thames Oilport’s deep-water jetties, further improving our access to global markets.”www.greenergy.com
The tender for the new National Fuels Framework Agreement closes at 15.00 on Monday 8th May 2017.
The scope of the new Framework has been extended to include additional fuel types such as liquefied gas, wood products and coal and also has lots for lubricants and greases and additional associated products and services.
Details of this procurement can be found on the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) website http://ccs-agreements.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/procurement-pipeline/national-fuel-services-rm3801.
If you have not submitted a bid but wish to do so please allow enough time to upload your response onto our eSourcing Suite.
The Framework agreement will be available for use by central Government and wider public sector organisation throughout the whole of the UK.
Please note the Liquid Fuels team is not allowed to enter into discussions or offer advice regarding this procurement, should you have any questions they need to be directed through the eSourcing suite.
The OJEU Notice was dispatched on 5 April and is available at the following link: http://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:131319-2017:TEXT:EN:HTML&src=0
NB: the closing date for responses to the invitation to tender is 15:00 8th May.
www.gov.uk/ccs
Under the new contracts Suckling Transport will also take on responsibility for other services to Shell in some areas
Suckling Transport has successfully renewed its fuels distribution contract with Shell UK for a further three years from 1st July 2017.
In addition to Suckling Transport’s existing business covering Scotland and the south west and Wales, the company has also been awarded with the Midlands region operating from Kingsbury.
The three-year contract extends the long standing relationship between Shell and Suckling Transport which dates back to the late 1980s.
As well as providing the road transportation delivery service to Shell forecourts throughout Scotland, the south west, Wales and the Midlands, the new contracts give Suckling Transport the additional responsibility of providing a full delivery service incorporating stock management, automatic order taking, routing and scheduling tasks on behalf of Shell in some areas.
“We are delighted to continue to grow and build on our strong relationship with Shell,” said managing director, Jesus Ciria.
“ With our strong HSSE and service driven culture, the provision of these new value added services further enhances Suckling’s offering to the market place.www.sucklingtransport.co.uk
StocExpo featured over 200 internationally renowned suppliers, two thirds of whom have rebooked for next year’s event
StocExpo Europe 2017 had ‘a triumphant return to Rotterdam’ last month. The show, which successfully launched the inaugural Global Tank Storage Awards, and unveiled a brand-new conference format, saw an 8% increase in visitor numbers.
Essar currently has 29 sites operating under the Essar brand including Ablewell in Walsall. The company first entered the UK retail market in November 2015 with a site at Coalville, Leicestershire
Essar Oil (UK), which owns and operates the Stanlow Refinery, welcomed six new sites in the Midlands recently as part of its growing UK retail network.
Five of the stations were opened on Thursday 30th March. Operated by the Top 50 indie group Javid Iqbal, they are located in Staffordshire and Derbyshire and were previously with the Esso brand. The following day, a sixth new station was commissioned in the West Midlands. The site, formerly branded Harvest Energy, is operated by group dealer Sailesh Parekh.
These openings bring the total number of Essar sites in the UK to 29. Three of the new sites – Mossfield, Endon and Longton – are situated in Stoke-on-Trent.
The other three sites – Rockbay, Hatton and Ablewell – are located in the Buxton, Derby and Walsall areas respectively.
Essar Oil UK Chief commercial officer, SB Prasad, said: “We are delighted with the addition of these six stations to the Essar fold. The openings underline the acceptance of Essar’s offering and continued healthy growth of our brand in the UK retail market.”www.essaroil.co.uk
Hoyer’s new Shell contract involves 70 vehicles and 240 drivers delivering retail fuels from five locations
HOYER Petrolog has retained significant business with Shell to deliver retail fuels in the UK. The new contract extends Hoyer’s relationship with Shell in the UK through to June 2020.
“The agreement of a new contract with Shell is credit to the people in our business who have contributed to an excellent and continuously improving safety and service performance over the past few years,” said operations director Allan Davison.
The contract involves 70 vehicles and 240 drivers delivering retail fuels from five loading locations throughout the North and South of England.www.hoyer.uk.com
Three of the five new tanks at Valero’s Avonmouth terminal
Following the completion of its multi-million pound expansion, Valero’s Avonmouth fuel terminal is now delivering all fuel grades to customers in the South West. Capacity has been tripled, with kerosene and gasoil added to the range of Valero products available and increased storage capacity for gasoline and diesel.
Valero’s vice president product supply, Mike Lewis, said: “It’s rare for a UK terminal to see such investment to expand capacity. We’ve now brought Avonmouth in line with our other terminals, making it a very modern facility that will supply all fuel grades and deliver a much more reliable service for our customers.
“It comes on the back of investments we’ve made at our other UK terminals since Valero entered the UK market in 2011,” Lewis added. As well as reopening Manchester Terminal in 2013, Valero has also made significant improvements at its other terminals, including Kingsbury and Cardiff. Amongst these are improved rack systems and controls, and the upgrading of ethanol blending systems.
Valero’s Avonmouth Terminal is now fully open for all grades, and receives fuel products directly from its oil refinery in Pembroke, South Wales.www.Valero.com
Students of Archers Brook school in Ellesmere Port were delighted to receive a £3,000 donation from Essar at Stanlow
Students at Archers Brook SEMH Residential School Charitable Trust in Ellesmere Port were delighted to receive a £3,000 donation from Essar at Stanlow recently as a result of the refinery achieving a record breaking safety target of three million hours without a recordable injury – a first in the site’s 60 year history.
Essar’s Let’s Give programme, which links safety milestones and charitable giving, recognised this significant achievement by donating to three charities: STEPS, Archers Brook, and The Liverpool Seafarers Centre.
The school community offers quality support for children and young people with a range of complex social, emotional and behavioural difficulties often linked with medical conditions such as ADHD or complex communication needs associated with ASD.
June Sedgwick, business manager at Archers Brook commented: “The trustees, staff and pupils of Archers Brook are very grateful to Essar for this wonderful donation. Each week different classes have a personal and social development trip to build their confidence, form friendships and help develop many life skills. This money will be used to help equip these trips, by purchasing mountain bikes for the newly formed group of key stage two pupils, as well as much needed outdoor education clothing for the entire age range of students.”www.essar.com/
INEOS Shale, the onshore division of INEOS Upstream, has completed the acquisition of the entire UK onshore petroleum exploration and development licence interests of ENGIE E&P UK Limited, increasing the total acreage held by INEOS under licence to more than 1.2 million acres.
The transaction involves minority interests in 15 licences, seven of which INEOS holds an existing interest in. The remaining eight complement the company’s existing licence interests in Yorkshire, Cheshire and the East Midlands. Three of the licences are operated by INEOS, eight by IGas Energy and four by Cuadrilla.
http://www.ineos.com/
Table of Licences acquired
The partially built Talisman steam road locomotive at the Shrewsbury Steam Rally
An ambitious project to recreate a classic steam engine from the early 20th century has been given a massive boost after the man leading the project tracked down and bought a collection of the original parts.
Alex Sharphouse and a small team of enthusiasts are building Talisman, a Fowler B6 Big Lion Road locomotive completely from scratch, with support from Shrewsbury-based Morris Lubricants, one of Britain’s leading independent oil blenders.
The welcome funding from Morris Lubricants helped him get the project off the ground. “We are proud to be associated with Morris Lubricants, a company with such history and style and their support comes from the heart,” he said.
“The link-up with Morris is fantastic because they have been in business for nearly 150 years and produce high quality products, including oil for steam engines.”
Morris Lubricants’ managing director, Andrew Goddard, said: “Helping Alex to acquire these original Talisman parts has helped the project gain a lot of provenance. He’s still going to have to make a lot of the engine from scratch but the parts that have been retrieved will be used, which makes it a partial restoration. We can’t wait to see it operational and would love to use it on a Morris Lubricants roadshow in the future.”
Morris Lubricants has been manufacturing lubricants in Shrewsbury since 1869 and is new recognised as one of Europe’s leading oil blenders and marketers, with a reputation for quality and service. The company offers an extensive range of performance lubricants covering a wide variety of application areas, from steam engines to modern-day commercial vehicles and industrial machinery.
Puma Energy, the global integrated midstream and downstream energy company has released its audited full year results for the period ended 31 December 2016, with record sales volumes increasing by around 16%.
Commenting on these results, Pierre Eladari, CEO, said that he was pleased to announce “another significant year for Puma”, in which the company had realised an overall growth of 12%. “I was also pleased to see the business model responding to a sustained period of organic growth across the business segments and regions with the completion of the integration of UK activities acquired in 2015, growth in the Americas driven by the retail segment and good operating performance in retail and aviation across all regions.”
Certas Energy has retained Manchester-based creative agency Lda, to overhaul and develop the company’s digital business-to-business, consumer and staff network presence.
Certas Energy supplies billions of litres of fuel in the UK each year and employs 2,500 people. Its digital marketing manager, Michelle Kay, explains the complications of building a digital presence for an organisation of this scale: “With so many stakeholders involved and so many aspects to the core build, we needed an agile development process that could handle regular updates, improvements and changes.
“In an industry that never stands still, this is particularly important, and so during the build phase we need the flexibility to adapt as requirements change. We also, where possible, need to future-proof the core technical specification to cope with inevitable evolution.”
She concludes: “We are at the beginning of our development roadmap and already we are impressed by Lda’s partnership approach. They are taking us through each step in a manageable and transparent way, and involving all stakeholders in a truly collaborative way.”
https://www.certasenergy.co.uk/
Adler & Allan has appointed Ian Osborne as new group managing director to continue the group’s drive in growth following an extremely successful period of increased demand, business acquisitions and sales.
“INEOS is a unique business”, says founder and chairman, Jim Ratcliffe
Last month INEOS announced that it had achieved ‘a record breaking profit of 4.3 billion euros of EBITDA last year’. It’s a figure only rivalled by the very biggest names in the industry. The group is also repaying 1.2 billion of euros from its cash resources.
INEOS Group has also just closed its latest debt financing and repricing. This included raising 1.4 billion euros of new loans and repricing 3 billion euros of existing debt. The new borrowings will save the group over 100 million euros a year and were oversubscribed by 50%, showing the credit market’s strong confidence in the company.
“These figures confirm that INEOS is doing better than ever,” said Jim Ratcliffe, INEOS founder and chairman.
“All the businesses are performing well and our successful refinancing shows that the market is clearly recognising this fact.”
INEOS is composed of 27 businesses, organised into six main groups. INEOS Group is the largest of these clusters with Styrolution, INOVYN, Enterprises, O&P (UK) and O&P (South) making up the rest. Even the smallest of these businesses has a billion-euro turnover and is a substantial undertaking in its own right “We’ve spent the last three months working on a comprehensive cross border finance package including euro and dollar borrowings,” said finance director John Reece.
“I am pleased to say that we’ve achieved better terms across the board, saving the company 100 million euros annually and pushing out debt maturities until 2022 at the earliest”. This follows equally successful refinancings of our Inovyn and Styrolution businesses in 2016.”
The new borrowing also includes a “step down” facility whereby the repayment costs will be reduced if the company meets certain financial targets.
“INEOS is a unique business, “ added Jim Ratcliffe.
“We only set it up eighteen years ago, and it has never floated. It’s a tribute to everyone involved – owners, management and staff – that it is now doing so well.”www.ineos.com
Bob Dudley will open SPE Offshore Europe. Held biennially in Aberdeen since 1973, it is the largest E&P conference and exhibition outside North America
BP group chief executive Bob Dudley will underline the value of the North Sea in the oil major’s global portfolio when he leads the opening plenary session at SPE Offshore Europe 2017 being held in Aberdeen from 5-8 September 2017.
Dudley, who calls BP’s UK North Sea business one of its “crown jewels”, will address the hundreds of delegates expected to attend the opening plenary session at Europe’s foremost exploration and production (E&P) technical conference and exhibition. Other senior level plenary speakers will be announced in due course.
BP expects to bring two of the largest new developments in the North Sea – the Quad 204 redevelopment and the new Clair Ridge project – into production over the next year or so, as well as continuing to invest in other North Sea assets. Over the same period, BP plans to participate in five exploration wells in the region and in around 50 new development wells over the next three years. BP’s North Sea production output is expected to double from 2015 levels to 200,000 barrels of oil a day by 2020.
Conference chair Catherine MacGregor, president, reservoir characterisation group, Schlumberger, commented: “As one of the most eminent figures in our industry, Bob Dudley will provide an inspirational scene-setter under the conference theme Embracing New Realities: Reinventing our Industry. Bob’s insight will kick-start OE2017 as we encourage the industry to think beyond cost efficiency and embrace new technologies, new types of business models and collaborations that will lead to sustainable ways of working.”
New for 2017 will be a Decommissioning Zone with a themed exhibition and conference space with over 40 decommissioning technology and service providers.www.offshore-europe.co.uk
Iran’s crude exports have doubled in five years
VesselsValue (VV) provides ‘instant, accurate and unbiased data that can be accessed from anywhere in the world, at any time’.
VV is used by the world’s leading commercial and investment banks, private equity, investment and hedge funds, shipowners and operators, lawyers, accountants, brokers, underwriters and more.
“Our senior analyst William Bennett has put together an overview of where Iranian crude is currently trading,” writes VV’s associate director Claudia Norrgren.
“With the loosening of Iranian sanctions last year, there has been a marked increase in the seaborne demand for Iranian crude exports.
“However, nothing is certain, and with new sanctions on Iran announced on 3rd February 2017, tensions are high. The question is can Iran keep increasing their exports?www.vesselsvalue.com
(l-r) Cutting the ribbon to open the site are Hydrogenics’ CEO, Filip Smeets, councillor Barney Crockett and Toyota director, Paul Van Der Burgh
Aberdeen’s second hydrogen refuelling station was officially opened in late February along with the launch of a fleet of 10 hydrogen fuelled Toyota Mirai cars.
The £2.6million station will serve the city’s expanding fleet of cars and vans and will be fully operational mid-March. Funded by Aberdeen City Council, ERDF, Transport Scotland and NESTRANS, it was built and will be maintained and operated by Hydrogenics.
Located in Cove, the Aberdeen City Hydrogen Energy Storage (ACHES) facility has four electric recharging points and has the potential to produce 130kg of hydrogen per day. Enabling fast refuelling, hydrogen is dispensed at 350 bar and 700 bar pressure.
The 10 Toyota Mirai cars will be leased for three years with five going to the National Health Service (NHS), three to the Co-wheels car club, one to Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) and one to Aberdeen City Council. The project is part funded by the UK government Office for Low Emission Vehicles (OLEV) and Transport Scotland.
“The Aberdeen Hydrogen Bus Project has been a major success and is helping to inform the growth and development of hydrogen technologies and the hydrogen industry,” said councillor Barney Crockett.
“The benefits of this latest project complement what has been achieved already and will be felt locally, nationally and internationally.”
An international summit on the hydrogen transport supply chain will be hosted by Aberdeen from 15th – 17th March. The H2 Transport Summit will bring together government, industry, local businesses and key influencers.www.h2aberdeen.com
(l-r) Simon Elliott, MAN UK managing director, Glyn Moores and Ian Broomhead from Pullman Fleet Services, and Mark Binns, managing director, HOYER Petrolog UK
Ellesmere Port-based Pullman Fleet Services (PFS) has won the annual HOYER/MAN dealer of the year award. The winners of the technician and outstanding performer of the year awards were also announced.
“The awards recognise those maintenance providers with an outstanding performance throughout the year, in addition to individuals who have made a significant contribution to the success of the HOYER Petrolog fleet,” said Allan Davison.
Pullman Fleet Services delivered a 100% record on safety and scored an impressive 96.4% on fleet availability with a 98.8% MOT pass rate.
The technician of the year award went to Gwynne Jones of Pullman Fleet Services.
“Gwynne has presented virtually every HOYER MOT this year and through completing thorough quality checks has maintained a solid first time pass rate on the HOYER contract for the past two years,” said Peter Ellison, head of fleet services SHEQ & Compliance, who was one of the judges.
“He has taken ownership of the first time pass rate for PFS and provides feedback from the test station sharing best practice to the rest of the workshop. Gwynne has developed and maintained a good professional relationship with VOSA at all times and achieved credibility with the testers.”
The outstanding performer of theyear award went to Nathan Adcock, workshop controller, Aquila Truck Centre with the special recognition award going to Jess Adlard who runs the operation at HRVS Scunthorpe.
Andrew Owen – ‘the participation of Brookfield Business Partners will allow Greenergy to participate in larger-scale strategic mergers and acquisition activities to propel our business to its next phase of development’.
Greenergy has reached agreement for Brookfield Business Partners (NYSE: BBU; TSX: BBU.UN) to invest in the business with the aim of accelerating growth. Existing Greenergy management shareholders will invest alongside Brookfield Business Partners and will retain a 15% share in the business.
As part of the process all existing non-management shareholders will exit the business. There will be no change to company strategy and the current management team will remain in place.
“It has been our long-standing aim to increase our access to capital through a strategic investor,” said Andrew Owens Greenergy’s chief executive.
“The participation of Brookfield Business Partners will allow us to participate in larger-scale strategic mergers and acquisition activities to propel our business to its next phase of development.”
Established in 2016, Brookfield Business Partners acquires and manages businesses with high barriers to entry, low production costs and the potential to benefit from Brookfield’s global expertise as an owner and operator of real assets. Its investment objective is to generate long-term returns without taking undue risk, and it seeks returns of at least 15% on its investments.
Cyrus Madon, chief executive officer of Brookfield Business Partners, commented:
“Our investment in Greenergy expands our footprint in the European market through a business that provides an essential service and a track record of providing customers with reliable and competitive supply. Greenergy is well positioned to continue growing its service offering for its long-term UK customer base, and we believe we can broaden the company’s operations outside of the UK by leveraging our global presence.”
The transaction is expected to conclude in Q2 2017. Its value has not been disclosed.www.greenergy.comwww.brookfieldbusinesspartners.com
A new bunkering facility supplying marine gas oil (MGO) has now opened on the Thames. Operated by the marine division of Certas Energy, the Thames facility stores distillate marine fuel (DMA grade MGO with less than 0.1% sulphur).
The new bunkering facility can accommodate smaller vessels such as bunker barges, through to large vessels with fuel being delivered via truck or ex-pipe.
“In line with our growth plans, this Thames location is a tactical addition to Certas Energy’s marine fuel offering, enhancing our storage and supply portfolio,” said Gary Byers, general manager for Certas Energy Marine.
“With depots near every major British port, Certas Energy marine fuel customers can take advantage of our extensive and reliable delivery network, capable of covering all bunkering needs.”
“Certas Energy continuously monitor the whole of the market to ensure that we keep up to date,” said Varun Chhabria, head of marine and risk at Certas Energy.
“Currently bullish positioning is stretched, price momentum is fading and the forecasting fundamentals for the following months do suggest some peaks. With so many moving parts and with no surprise that OPEC has stepped back into market management mode, it has steered in a new era of growth within specific product lines for the oil industry.”
www.certasenergy.co.uk
(l-r)) Joe Roddy, Volvo’s network truck sales director North & Ireland with Michael Cundy, MD, Suttons Tankers and John Sutton, CEO, Suttons Group
Suttons Group is investing more than £17m in new tractor units for its UK road tanker business. The purchase of over 200 new Euro-6C 6×2 tractor units in the next two years will provide capacity for recent growth and contribute to the company’s strategy to invest in equipment that offers its customers the most effective and flexible solutions.
The strategic procurement process has considered the vehicle specification, fuel efficiency, environmental impact, vehicle reliability, after sales support and whole life cost.
“Suttons Tankers is the UK’s largest bulk chemical logistics company and this latest deal continues Suttons commitment to investing in the latest equipment and technology for both existing and new customers,” said John Sutton, CEO Suttons Group.
“Our drivers’ safety and wellbeing is of great importance so all trucks have undergone an evaluation by a driver trainer, focusing on areas like seat comfort, cab and bed access, noise and cab design.
The deal has been agreed with both Volvo and MAN with Volvo receiving the biggest proportion of orders in the first year.
“Volvo Trucks is absolutely delighted and very excited to have won such an important supply agreement from Suttons,” added Mike Corcoran, commercial director, Volvo Trucks UK & Ireland:
“We’re very proud to be working closely with such an internationally important logistics and supply chain company.”
Suttons operates internationally with key business centres in New Jersey, Houston, Chicago, Widnes, Antwerp, Ludwigshafen, Paris, Kuantan, Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo and Khobar.www.suttonsgroup.com
The Freight Transport Association (FTA) is concerned that proposed revisions to the European Commission’s Driver CPC Directive (Certificate of Professional Competence) could limit operators’ ability to provide relevant training for their drivers….
“With one of the proposed revisions preventing training on the same subject within the five-year period, an unintended consequence could be that a driver would undertake training that was less relevant to his or her role just to fulfil the statutory requirement,” explained Chris Yarsley, FTA’s EU affairs manager.
“This could hamper keeping drivers up to date with changes in legislation which would particularly apply to operators who carry dangerous goods or are involved in security work, where very specific training is required on a regular basis.”
This long-awaited document from the European Commission follows an evaluation completed in 2014 which was broadly positive, highlighting safety improvements and labour mobility.
Whilst a number of shortcomings which were identified, are now being addressed, the FTA says it is vital that Driver CPC training remains flexible, so that operators can adapt to their own driver needs.
Attention should also be given to how training is delivered and increased flexibility provided, as a seven-hour block of learning may not be the best method for each individual.
The changes could be agreed by the European Commission before Brexit, so would continue to apply following the Great Repeal Bill until otherwise decided.
www.fta.co.uk
“Government funding to support the development, evaluation and piloting of an ultra-low carbon fuel would be valued,” says Paul Rose
A two-stage approach to reducing carbon emissions from oil-using households has been put forward by OFTEC in its response to the government’s ‘Heat in Buildings: The Future of Heat in Domestic Buildings’ consultation.
OFTEC’s submission focused on the urgent need to decarbonise heat for the 920,000 oil using households in England and Wales – but in a way that is practical and affordable for consumers.
OFTEC suggests this could be achieved by adopting a two-stage approach, looking at a boiler replacement programme in the short term and developing a very low/zero carbon liquid fuel alternative to kerosene as a realistic medium to long-term solution.
“Our independently verified data shows a boiler replacement programme would prove five times more effective in reducing carbon emissions from oil using households than the current domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI).
“Government has already committed further funding to support the ill-fated RHI scheme but by doing so in preference to a boiler replacement scheme, is forfeiting the chance to reduce CO2 emissions by five times for every pound of expenditure.
“A simple boiler replacement programme would be more affordable, easier to comprehend, and simpler to implement for homeowners compared to renewable alternatives, resulting in much higher take up. Due to oil being significantly cheaper to run than renewable options, the approach has the added benefit of reducing household energy bills which will in turn help to lessen the country’s severe fuel poverty issue.
“Whilst a boiler replacement programme would provide an effective short-term carbon reduction solution, we believe the future lies in bringing to market a very low or zero carbon liquid fuel,” added Paul.
“Following advancements in biofuel and building on OFTEC’s successful development of a bio/kerosene blend of fuel in 2010, we are evaluating the suitability of low carbon liquid fuels currently employed in the transport and aviation sectors, for use as a heating fuel.
OFTEC’s submission also supported mandating heating controls along with simple steps such as system flushing and annual boiler servicing to ensure systems are working to maximum efficiency.www.oftec.co.uk
Using biomethane will deliver significant environmental and operational benefits to the business says Waitrose
Last week CNG Fuels, supplier of biomethane fuel, and Waitrose introduced Europe’s most advanced fleet of CNG powered trucks with a range of up to 500 miles. These vehicles use technology developed jointly by Scania and Agility Fuel Solutions which helps overcome concerns about the distance that CNG-powered lorries are able to cover before refuelling.
The 10 new Scania-manufactured CNG trucks entered operation for Waitrose last month. Making deliveries in the Midlands and the North, they are the first in Europe to use two 26-inch diameter carbon fibre fuel tanks which store gas at 250 bar of pressure to increase the range from around 300 miles to as much as 500 miles. This range will allow them to always run entirely on biomethane which is 35% to 40% cheaper than diesel and emits 70% less CO2.
Each truck costs 50% more than one which runs on diesel but the extra costs will be repaid in two to three years with fuel savings of £15,000-£20,000 a year depending on mileage. Operating for at least five years, savings of £75k-100k are expected compared with a diesel equivalent with each lorry also saving more than 100 tonnes of CO2 a year (versus diesel).
“This is a game changer for hauliers,” said Philip Fjeld, CEO of CNG Fuels.
“These high pressure carbon fibre tanks demolish the range anxiety concerns that have made many hauliers reluctant to move away from diesel to CNG.”www.cngfuels.com