Gina Hinde, Morris Lubricants’ new marketing manager Looking forward to a fresh career challenge Gina Hinde has joined Shrewsbury-based Morris Lubricants as marketing manager.

The IPRA quality assurance scheme is the only motor fuel QA scheme in Ireland to have received trade mark certification The Irish Petrol Retailers Association (IPRA) has recently confirmed that its Quality Assurance Scheme (QA) for petrol retailers has received trade mark certification. “We’re delighted with this news,” said David Blevings, IPRA spokesperson. “The IPRA quality assurance scheme is the only motor fuel QA scheme in Ireland to have received trade mark certification. The QA scheme will now be rolled out to stations across the country giving consumers the satisfaction in knowing that retailers displaying the blue and green Quality Assurance logo are part of an accredited scheme that includes initial entry and random testing to ensure fuel quality.” The scheme was reviewed and approved by the Department of Jobs, Innovation and Enterprise and the Irish Patents Office. The addition of the trade mark will increase consumer satisfaction in this area and encourage fuel suppliers to get on board so their consumers purchase with complete confidence. “Fuel adulteration can take different forms and in recent years, the most common form of adulteration was to remove the dye from agricultural gasoil and sell this as road diesel,” said David. “This caused damage to many car engines and resulted in large scale waste being dumped at the roadside from the industrial process used. Many innocent consumers were caught out and were victims of this fuel adulteration scandal with many having to pay thousands of euros for car engine repairs. The introduction of a new marker by Revenue has reduced this problem but fuel adulteration can still be an issue with ‘designer’ fuels now being found in the UK and Ireland”, claims David. Welcoming the news Paul Turner, head of legal metrology at the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) said: “NSAI is responsible for ensuring that fuel pumps dispense the correct amount of fuel when a customer fills their vehicle at a retail station. We do this through the authorised verifier’s scheme. We welcome the news that the IPRA QA scheme has received trade mark verification and support any initiative that gives consumers assurance on fuel quality. Together NSAI and IPRA can provide your customers with the confidence they need.” “The message to consumers is clear – make sure you are using a retailer who is part of a Quality Assurance Scheme. Look for the blue and green Quality Assurance logo on the pump before you refill. “The IPRA scheme has achieved trade mark certification and the backing of the Society of the Irish Motor Industry, the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association, Small Firms Association and the Irish Road Haulage Association. “Consumers looking to locate their nearest retailer taking part in the IPRA QA scheme can search our retailer map on www.ipra.ie,” added David.

Last week Puma Energy, the global integrated midstream and downstream energy company, released its results for the first quarter of 2017. “I am pleased to report that, despite facing headwinds in certain regions, we have had a steady start to the year, with a 3% increase in sales volume this quarter (compared to Q1 2016) and a gross profit of $407 million,” said CFO Denis Chazarain.   Key highlights  

A gas fuel tank on an Abbey trial vehicle Abbey Logistics is now working with CNG Fuels to run trials on new CNG vehicles. The trucks from Iveco and Scania will be put through their paces in a two-month trial, operating on the same routes carrying the same loads as their diesel counterparts to give us a clear picture of how they are performing.  Having trialled many gas-powered vehicles in the past, including dual fuel, LPG, LNG, CNG and many more, trials have usually shown the same results; promising technology, easy to maintain, zero emissions and reduced fuel costs. However for a company like Abbey Logistics, which counts every penny of its fleet costs, and rely on the flexibility of our network; the vehicles have always been too expensive to buy and their mileage range has always been too low to be a viable alternative to diesel. But now with the extended range available on gas-powered vehicles with compressed natural gas, Abbey Logistics’ fleet engineer David Batty is asking if this could be a realistic alternative to diesel power?  “One of my most important roles at Abbey Logistics is to analyse and trial new vehicles and associated technology,” said David. “Innovative new technology from Scania and Iveco means that LNG and CNG can now be used in vehicles that can achieve almost the same miles per tank as their diesel equivalents. “Drivers involved in the trial will be trained to use the new refuelling pumps, which use a traffic light system that tells the driver when fuelling is complete and it takes no longer than filling up a diesel tank. Refuelling is also inherently safe and clean due to zero spillage and the driver doesn’t need to stand next to the vehicle during the process. “While the latest CNG developments are exciting, we’re reserving judgement until a full evaluation of the gas-powered vehicles is complete.”www.abbeylogisticsgroup.com

Following the release of the latest comparative average heating price figures from Sutherland Tables, OFTEC reports good news for most oil heating users in the UK. Detailed below, the figures show the three months up to the end of April. Over this quarter the cost of kerosene has decreased slightly for most areas, ranging from 1 – 3%. The exceptions are Scotland and Northern Ireland where costs have risen by approximately 2% and 5% respectively. Regional variations can be quite significant and prices are usually highest in Scotland where transport costs are a bigger factor. The best news comes from the Republic of Ireland where the average cost of home heating using oil has decreased by almost 8% compared to last quarter, which is excellent news for homeowners and oil heating businesses alike. Homeowners with other types of heating have not all been so lucky. Over the last quarter, the biggest heating cost losers have been consumers of LPG and electricity in all UK regions. In Great Britain, consumers of LPG have experienced a price increase of approximately 5%, while in Northern Ireland LPG costs have risen by almost 8%. In Republic of Ireland, the cost of using LPG has remained static. Consumers using electric heating in Great Britain have also seen an increase in costs, whereas in Northern and Southern Ireland prices have remained static. The natural gas price has remained static except in Northern Ireland where it has increased by over 2%. Comparative space and water heating costs for a three bedroom house Figures supplied by Sutherland Tables Great Britain

The Thun Grace will transport marine gas oil from oil refineries to fuel storage tanks in the Geos Group’s six physical supply locations Marine gas oil supplier, the Geos Group (Sea Bunkering) has taken delivery of a new vessel, the Thun Grace, on long-term time charter from Thun Tankers. The Thun Grace is significantly larger than the Geos Group’s outgoing vessel, the Milford Fisher, which means that the company will now have extra capacity to grow its sales volume and provide a faster, more responsive service to its customers. Built in 1999, the Thun Grace is a highly efficient 6,535mt DWT, 103m x 15m chemical tanker, with an experienced and professional crew on board. She will shortly be equipped for ship-to-ship operations – a fast and flexible fuelling solution for operators when a ship’s port access is restricted, or when there are no fuel facilities available within a port. The vessel will transport marine gas oil from oil refineries to fuel storage tanks in the Geos Group’s six physical supply locations: Aberdeen, Blyth, Great Yarmouth, Lerwick, Heysham and Montrose. It will also transport fuel between these sites, in order to meet demand and avoid stock shortages. “Increasing the size of our vessel is an important strategic move for the Geos Group”, said Adam Russell, trading and hedging manager. “We will have more flexibility in our programme, and greater capacity for transporting fuel between locations. We will be able to increase our volume and offer a more competitive bunkering service to the ship owners and operators that we supply. We are happy to be working with Thun Tankers as our business grows and more opportunities present themselves”.http://www.geosgroup.com

Sealing the deal Tony Stewart and Jon Huggett Certas Energy and Shell Lubricants have announced a new five-year distribution contract that will see a strengthening of their collaboration supplying high quality lubricants across the UK, supported by technical expertise and logistical capabilities. The two companies have been collaborating since 2004 and the new contract will bolster Certas Energy’s position as Shell’s largest contracted lubricants distributor in the UK. The move allows each partner to play to its strengths, and customers will continue to benefit from access to a quality, market-leading product portfolio and comprehensive wrap-around service that includes the widest possible coverage, swift and reliable packed, bulk and even same or next day deliveries. “I am delighted to continue our relationship with Certas,” said Jon Huggett, Shell UK indirect sales manager. Our distributors are trusted and approved ambassadors of Shell Lubricants and of the Shell brand in the UK, and have established strong technical, logistical and commercial expertise that they can offer customers.” “We aim to be more than just a supplier to our customers,” added Certas Energy director, Tony Stewart. “The combination of Shell’s quality lubricants and our technical and customer service capabilities provides our customers with a cost-competitive offering that gives them everything they need to keep moving. We are looking forward to continuing to work with Shell to provide access to a leading portfolio of lubrication products and services that will help drive standards across the industry.” Although lubricants typically represent a small percentage of total running costs, selecting the right lubricant can help save significant costs and reduce inefficiencies. By working with a lubricant supplier that combines technical know-how with high levels of service, customers can be more confident in choosing the best products for their unique requirements.www.certasenergy.co.uk

Mabanaft’s Martin Cook (l) congratulates Ryan Carnegie Mabanaft is delighted to announce the winner of their MABADRIVE competition which took place at FPS EXPO in Liverpool last week. Ryan Carnegie of Carnegie Fuels achieved the highest score to win a Fit Bit Charge 2. Carnegie Fuels, a family run business based in Brechin in Scotland, was established in 1957. Ryan, the fourth-generation of his family to be working in the business, said: “I was thrilled to win the FIT Bit and look forward to using it to track my fitness. We have been buying fuel from Mabanaft for 8 years and they are a valued supplier. It was great to catch up with members of their team at FPS EXPO, and meet the people that we speak with on the phone throughout the year”. “Ryan was a late contender but he scored far higher than all the other competitors making it a well-deserved win,” added Mabanaft marketing manager Martin Cook. “Carnegie Fuels is a long-standing customer, so our sales team were delighted to hear that Ryan had won. “We all thoroughly enjoyed FPS EXPO this year; the sun shone and the exhibition location was spectacular. Visitor numbers seemed to be on the up and there was a very positive buzz in the room. Our Pint in the Pub event on the Wednesday evening was as popular as ever. All in all, we met up with lots of customers and there was a lot of positive interest in the new development on Mabalive. Definitely one of the best shows in recent years!”www.mabalive.co.uk

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/

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.

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/