The Bulletin Magazine - March 2013

Journal of the Association for Petroleum and Explosives Administration

The Bulletin

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March 2013

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4

Editor’s Report

7

Business Manager’s Report

7

Business Manager Notices

11

Note to members - Public Health Act Section 73

12

New APEA Members

12

News

16

Press Releases

39

Articles Fuel Measurement Integrity, Mathematical Rules and False Documentation in Petrol Retailing

42

Interview with Michael O’Kane

44

Operating ‘best in class’ Service Stations by Embracing Innovation and Process Improvements

48

Ask The Experts

52

APEA Live 2013

55

Effectively Dealing with an Environmental Incident: A Legal Perspective

57

Class 1 Leak Detection - The Ultimate Deterrent

61

Technical information from the UKLPG

65

Branches Branch reports

66

Training 2013 course dates and booking details

NB. The technical content is not an official endorsement by or on behalf of the APEA and are entirely the views of the author’s

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Brian Baker Editor

Brian Baker & Associates

Fire and Petroleum Safety

Services

52 Milton Grove Bletchley

Milton Keynes MK3 5BH

Tel: +44 (0) 1908 377127

Mobile: +44 (0) 7798 765958 email: Bakerb4@sky.com Jamie Thompson

Publishing Chairman 70 Wangford Road Reydon

Southwold

CONTENTS AND EDITORIAL

Chairman’s Report

Suffolk

IP18 6NX

Tel/fax: +44 (0) 1502 722999 Mobile: +44 (0) 7770 625851 email:

jamie@jamiethompson.org.uk Jane Mardell

Business Manager PO Box 106

Saffron Walden

Essex CB11 3XT

United Kingdom

Tel/fax: +44 (0) 845 603 5507 Mobile: +44 (0) 7815 055514 email: admin@apea.org.uk

Find us on LinkedIn

Front Cover - A Petrol Station in Montenegro Published by the Association for Petroleum and Explosives Administration

A company Limited by Guarantee registered in England No. 2261600Opinions expressed in this Journal are not necessarily the views of the Association.

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Happy New Year to one and all,

may 2013 be everything you wish it to be.

I know it will be way past

Christmas by the time this issue of The Bulletin lands on your desk

however best wishes to everyone. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the festive season passes by.

It is an extremely busy time of year with everyone working like beavers

to make sure that everything at

home and work is completed on time for the big day of celebration.

Of

course

in

our

multi-cultural

society there are many days in the calendar

to

plan

for

however

Christmas is the main one in my

household.

Following this hectic

festive period for many of us it is a time to plan our budgets and

and 3)would

like

to

see

different

methods of delivery – for example online or distance courses.

The training courses offer excellent

value for money when compared to other courses available within the

industry and with the added benefit

of offering CPD certificates I’m sure

you will all agree that they are extremely beneficial.

During the process of review it

may

be

that

you

receive

a

telephone call in order that a quick

survey may be conducted and I would like to thank you in advance for your co-operation.

In the run up to Christmas I

attended

the

Eastern

Branch

attempt to forecast what the year

Meeting that was held on The Belfast

no different. National Council meet

This was an excellent meeting and it

January, May and September and

of members supporting the event

ahead may bring and the APEA is

CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

three times a year, generally in something that is going to be quite a

challenge

on

the

agenda

for

in London on the 5th December.

was fantastic to see a large number

and travelling from far afield to attend.

The day was filled with

planning for the forthcoming year is

interesting content with time to look

requirements.

excellent day.

to

plan

and

forecast

training

As the APEA is

representative of all aspects of the

around the ship which made for an information

Further details and

on

speakers

are

industry, the training committee

contained in the Branch Report at

pulling together a wide variety of

branch is an extremely active

have done a tremendous job in courses to suit our wide audience.

However, as with everything in life, the only thing that can be certain is

that change is a constant and with the changes in the economic

climate and budget reductions it is

becoming increasingly difficult to fill

these places. With this in mind the Training Committee are keen to

review the overall strategy and

placement of the courses and also

methods of delivery. One of the key ingredients to the success of this

review will be feedback from those members who:

through the post and have until the 28th February to pay otherwise your membership will lapse.

Your local

branch receives a capitation fee

from National Council based on the number of members within the

branch. Therefore your membership is key to supporting the local branch

and I would urge you all to keep

your membership up to date. At just 11 pence per day the value of

membership far outweighs the cost.

To all our corporate members and

those

individual

members

who

advertise, I would like to extend a

huge thank you for your continued

support with The Bulletin and The Yearbook.

I’m sure you will agree

that these publications reach a

large percentage of the target

market and represent excellent

the rear of the Bulletin. The Eastern branch that as always relies on the

advertising and other publications.

input of the volunteers on the

committee to put together these

with many other forms of direct Advertising not only promotes your business

with

your

existing

excellent meetings and I would like

customers, it keeps you visible to the

excellent

know you already have!

to congratulate them on another day.

Talking

of

committees the Eastern Branch

potential customers that you do not Jane

Mardell,

our

business

have a new Branch Representative

manager, has advised previously

moved on to pastures new, and I

pay for banner advertising on the

as Adrian Holyomes from Hytek has would like to wish him well with his

new venture in the future. I would therefore like to welcome Alex

Boudry as the incoming Branch

Representative and look forward to

working with him during the course of my tenure as Chairman and years

to come and look forward to

2)are interested in attending future

forward.

4

have received your renewal invoice

value for money when compared

1)have already attended courses courses

with membership renewals. You will

hearing some fresh ideas moving This is a busy time of year for Jane

that there is now the opportunity to

APEA website. On a personal level

the banner advertising has been

very successful and beneficial for my company and has worked really well for us and I would highly

recommend it.

Once again I would like to wish

you a happy and prosperous 2013

and look forward to seeing you all at

Branch Meetings throughout the year.

APEA tel/fax 0845 603 5507 www.apea.org.uk

Hi everybody and welcome to our first edition of 2013 and hope you find plenty of interesting articles this time. We seem to have started the New Year quietly though judging by the news section - we appear to be receiving a lot of reports of tankers in collision causing injury and harm.

Do we pay enough attention to incidents involving these dangerous consignments on our roads of today? Going back to my previous role as a regulator I do recall numerous occasions of near or slight incidents involving road tankers and remember receiving a call a few years ago with a Triumph TR7 car ramming itself under the protective rear barrier of a tanker which narrowly missed causing an explosion. The tanker had positioned itself outside a petrol filling station waiting for the dry goods delivery to be completed so it could access the site as the site was very busy.

Something at the design stage which all who are involved in the planning or a refurbishment of a site should consider. It is bad enough getting a road tanker off-site let alone the prospect of an LPG tanker and/or goods delivery vehicle as well.

Our training service continues to be popular as three of our team prepare to pack their bags to go to Sligo in the Republic of Ireland. There are 30 odd petroleum licensing authorities in the Republic of Ireland, all with enforcement activity is undertaken by the Fire Authorities,

not dissimilar to what we had in the UK in 1974, on re-organisation of Local Government.

For two years now there have been proposals to change Irish Petroleum Legislation. This continues to remain at the consultation stage, but one thing that stands out is the desire to adopt our “Blue Book” as the definitive and leading guidance to apply. This is a tribute to the collection of authors who put the last (and third) edition into print in 2011.

We are also experimenting with a one-day workshop for experienced Petroleum Officers for the Central England Trading Standards Authorities (CENTSA) where we are trying a different approach to update existing officers. This was carried out for Leicestershire County Council last year at the client’s request which went down well. More on this in the next issue, but this may seem to be the way forward where funds for most authorities (and for that matter, private companies) are tight at the moment.

The year has started comparatively quietly but given my experience of our industry, it does not last for long when a new flavour of the month comes along.

Alternative fuels perhaps? We seem to be slowly moving forward on the electrification of the UK’s transport system with the appearance of electric car charging up points being dotted around that are increasing in number.

I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Year. I am starting work on the 2014 Yearbook so please ensure you read the details in this issue on how to be included.

having to enter them from scratch.

Please remember that only members that complete the online process are included in the Yearbook.

All APEA members are eligible for one free entry in the Petroleum Industry Company name listings and one in the Trade Directory section, please select the relevant Trade Directory heading when entering.

2014 Yearbook On page 11 of this issue of the Bulletin you will find instructions on how to register for the 2014 Yearbook.

Anyone who registered online for the 2013 diary will be able to update their details for the 2014 one, so making it easier for you rather than

Full instructions on how to be included are detailed on page 11 of this issue.

APEA tel/fax 0845 603 5507 www.apea.org.uk

It is bound to happen that a planning submission for a redundant filling station to have these charging points installed is very likely if nothing already happened somewhere.

Well you electrical consultants, what are your thoughts on that one?

I still receive contact from wellwishers following my two major operations I had in 2012 and that is very much appreciated and spurred me on to continue my presence as a Director of our Association. That caused me to put the wheelchair in the garage just before Christmas in order that I can revert to first two walking sticks and since the New Year, just one.

For me a minor miracle and have been told that I will be entered for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016.

Well maybe not, I am happy with small steps rather than big ones!

Until next time, all the very best.

Brian

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EDITOR’S REOPRT/BUSINESS MANAGER’S REPORT

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You can also benefit if you wish to advertise in the Yearbook as follows: • All existing ‘Bulletin’ advertisers receive a 50% discount off the 2014 Yearbook rates • Any advertiser taking out a full page advert in the 2014 Yearbook is entitled to a website banner free of charge from April 2013 to April 2013 on the APEA website

BUSINESS MANAGER’S REPORT

Publications - 3rd Edition of the Blue Book The 3rd Edition of the Guidance for Design, Construction, Modification, Maintenance and Decommissioning of Filling Stations ‘Blue Book’ (Revised June 2011) is now available to purchase from the APEA website.

It is available in hard copy and also as a pdf download.

If you wish to purchase the guide please go to the APEA website at www.apea.org.uk and click on the ‘Publications’ page. You can select to pay by credit/debit card or by invoice.

Pricing as follows: APEA Member Hard back £70 pdf £70 plus vat Non APEA Member Hard back £140 Pdf £140 plus vat Postage is free for orders to the UK and Europe up to a value of £500.00.

For orders over this value and for deliveries to countries outside the UK and Europe, the postage will be calculated when the order is placed.

There are also discounts available for bulk purchases of the hard copy version which will be calculated with your order as follows: 5 - 9 copies = 10% 10 - 49 copies = 20% 50+ copies = 30% To benefit from the APEA member discount you will need to log on to the website before purchasing. If you do not know your log on details you can click on the ‘Member log in’ icon on the top right of the page and request your username and password or you can contact me at

8

admin@apea.org.uk.

We also publish the Code of Practice for Ground floor, multi storey and underground car parks.

This can be downloaded directly from the APEA website and is available to members at £11.00.

2013 Membership Renewal Payments Thanks to all of you that renewed your membership by 1st January. If you have not already done this I would be grateful if you can make your payment for 2013 as soon as possible. This will help reduce the number of reminders that I send out each year.

This can be made via the APEA website on the ‘Membership’ page, by cheque, by bank transfer or by credit card.

The APEA bank details are detailed on your invoice.

Anyone that has not renewed by 28th February will have their membership discontinued and the membership record will be deleted from the database.

Bulletin - articles/news items Thank you to all of you that have contributed to this issue of The Bulletin.

Please email me any news items, press releases or articles for the June 2013 issue at admin@apea.org.uk and I will pass them on to our Editor for approval. The deadline for final copy is 1st April for the next issue.

We are always pleased to receive contributions from our members and it ensures that the Bulletin remains an interesting and informative read.

Bulletin - 2013 Advertising Thanks to all of you that renewed your advertising for the 2013 issues of the Bulletin and thanks to new advertisers too, especially in these difficult economic times.

If you book in all four issues you receive a 25% discount and we are able to offer discounts for those of you that wish to book for more than one issue but less than four issues.

You will also receive a 50% discount on Yearbook advertising for the 2014 issue.

If you would like to book advertising in the Bulletin for 2013, please email me your requirements to admin@apea.org.uk or call me on 0845 603 5507.

Training Thanks to all of you that have booked on the APEA training courses.

The 2013 dates are detailed on page 75 of this issue of the Bulletin and are also on the APEA website at www.apea.org.uk where you can book online or download a booking form.

I can also arrange bespoke courses for companies, which enables members to receive training at a discounted rate and at a time and location suitable to them.

If you are interested in hosting a bespoke course for your company please do not hesitate to contact me for a quote.

We can offer discounted rates for these courses if you are able to provide a venue and catering.

You can book courses online from the Training page on the APEA website or you can download a booking form from our website training page; just click on the course you are interested in and the course details and online form are displayed.

Also anyone booking a training course that is not an APEA member will automatically receive “Individual” membership to the APEA until 31st December 2013.

New Members There have been 42 new members joining during October, November and December details can be found on page 12.

Website Please make use of the website where you can book training courses, purchase publications, look up contact details, technical and general information.

If you wish to contribute anything to the site please email it to me for review.

General Assistance Finally if any of you need any assistance with general or technical matters, please do not hesitate to contact me at admin@apea.org.uk or on 0845 603 5507 and I will endeavour to help.

Jane

APEA tel/fax 0845 603 5507 www.apea.org.uk

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By Jane Mardell, APEA Business Manager

All members were sent an invoice and membership renewal notice letter at the beginning of November for your 2013 membership renewal.

Payment was due by 1st January. If you have not already paid then please can you make payment as soon as possible to maintain continuity of membership. Please note that membership will be discontinued for any member that has not made payment by 28th February.

Membership Rates Individual/Fellow membership £40.00 includes one copy of the Bulletin per quarter, 1 copy of the Yearbook, use of APEA logo Corporate membership - £150.00 includes 5 copies of the Bulletin per quarter, 5 copies of the Yearbook and APEA logo usage Retired membership - £15.00 includes one copy of the Bulletin per quarter, 1 copy of the Yearbook

The membership represents good value for money and the APEA continues to offer members technical advice, training courses, publications, networking and an excellent forum for exchange of information in the industry. Thank you for your continued support.

How to pay APEA website You can pay by securely by credit/debit card using Worldpay or Paypal on the APEA website by clicking here on the ‘Membership renewal’ page.

Bank transfer Account number: 93816672 Sort code: 20-59-42 IBAN: GB90 BARC 20594293816672 SWIFT: BARCGB22 Please put your invoice number or personal or company name as the reference for a bank transfer.

APEA Yearbook 2014 Entry Instructions

By Jane Mardell, APEA Business Manager

In order to ensure that your details are included in the 2014 Yearbook it is essential that you complete your online entry by 28th March.

If you completed an entry for the 2013 Yearbook you will be able to use the same entry or amend if required, but you must complete the process of registration from the start.

With this issue of the Bulletin I have enclosed an instruction letter to all members that are eligible for the Petroleum Company Contacts and Trade Directory sections in the Yearbook.

Licensing and Enforcement Authorities will be contacted separately for their

sections of the Yearbook.

Entry Instructions

Even if you do not wish to advertise in the Yearbook, to be included you should complete your entry as follows: 1. To start your entry go the APEA website home page at www.apea.org.uk 2. Click on the link on the home page called ‘Member Registration’ and you will be asked to log in using your APEA membership userid and

APEA tel/fax 0845 603 5507 www.apea.org.uk

Remittance details to be sent to the APEA accountants at: Christine Cook Ensors Cardinal House 46 St Nicholas Street Ipswich Suffolk IP1 1TT Email: christine.cook@ensors.co.uk Cheque Please post your cheques together with the remittance slip at the bottom of your renewal notice letter to the APEA accountants see address below (not to the APEA office address): Christine Cook Ensors Cardinal House 46 St Nicholas Street Ipswich Suffolk IP1 1TT If you do not wish to renew your membership and do not wish to receive reminders by email and post, please email me at admin@apea.org.uk quoting your invoice number and membership number if you have them available.

password. If you completed an entry for the 2013 Yearbook this will be displayed.

3. You will then be asked to complete your contact details and then select the Trade Directory or Trade Directories that you wish to be listed under. And that is it!

Once you have completed the online entry form you will be sent a confirmation email if you have entered an email address on your entry.

Each member is entitled to one FREE entry in the Petroleum Company Contacts section and one FREE Trade Directory entry (industry sector) per company in the Yearbook.

Any additional company contact

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BUSINESS MANAGER NOTICES

2013 Membership Renewal Payments

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BUSINESS MANAGER NOTICES/NOTE TO MEMBERS/NEW APEA MEMBERS

detail entries or trade directory entries are charged at £26.00 plus VAT. The system will total up any costs due, if you have selected additional trade directories and you will be directed to pay via Paypal or Worldpay. Or you can also select to be invoiced, if you prefer.

The entry system will notify me of your entry and I will then record that you have entered on the membership database.

Once you have completed your entry, if you wish to make any

Public Health Act Section 73

Neil Roberts of the London Fire

Brigade is enquiring through the

Bulletin to other Petroleum Licensing

Detailed below are new members that have recently joined the APEA during October, November and December.

October Bob Griffiths R E Griffiths Surveyor 36 Weston Bank Weston under Lizard Shifnal Shropshire TF11 8JT Nick Crisp Goldstream Services 378 St John Street London EC1V 4NN Karen Bruce FUELlink Systems Ltd 4 Fyne Avenue Righead Industrial Estate Bellshill Lanarkshire ML4 3LJ Chris Norton Norton Electrical Contractors NW Ltd 3 The Weint Hollins Green Cheshire WA3 6JY Colin Doyle Pumps & Fuel Installations Whiterock Business Park 729 Springfield Road Belfast Antrim BT12 7FP 12

amendments please contact me at admin@apea.org.uk Alternatively if you are not able to register online, please contact me for a registration form.

Advertising in the Yearbook

The rates have remained the same as for the 2013 Yearbook and you can also benefit from the following if you wish to advertise in the Yearbook: • All existing ‘Bulletin’ advertisers receive a 50% discount off the

2014 Yearbook rates • Any advertiser taking out a full

page advert in the 2014 Yearbook

is entitled to a website banner free of charge from April 2013 to April

2014 on the APEA website

If you have any queries or require

an advertising booking form, please

do not hesitate to contact me at the APEA office on 0845 603 5507 or by email at admin@apea.org.uk.

Authorities who have successfully used the above legislation in making disused underground tanks safe.

If as a PLA you have used this legislation, Neil would like to hear

from you his contact details are as follows.

Mobile: 07827896163 Email: Neil.Roberts2@London-Fire.gov.uk

Aidan O’Donoghue

Paul Smith Johnson Controls 190 Spencers Croft Harlow Essex CM18 6JP

J.A. Gorman Consulting Engineers Ltd

Unit 1 Block B, Forest Park Mullingar

Co Westmeath Ireland

Mark Pearson

Pearson Electrical Limited 31 Northside Hull

East Yorkshire HU12 0PA Paul O’Donoghue 25 Ballinure

Collins Avenue Dunmore Rd Waterford Ireland

Maged Ghattas

The Egyptian Company for Import & Export

8 Al Amal St. Shoubra- Aga Khan

Tower Cairo

Egypt Paul Cavanagh

36 Rothbury Gardens Lobley Hill

Gateshead

Tyne & Wear NE11 0AT

Craig Le Grice Station Farm Hassop Bakewell Derbyshire DE45 1NW Tim Leary Pinnacle Monitoring Limited The Technology Centre Lincoln Buildings Glenmore Road East Crowborough TN6 1RE Andrew Forsythe DCC Energy Ltd (T/A Emo & Flogas) 40-44 Airport Road West Sydenham Belfast Down BT3 9ED Stuart Tucker Guernsey Electricity Electricity House, Po Box 4 Northside Vale Guernsey GY1 3AD Christopher Fritot C F Services Vilamendhoo La Rue de Fauvic Grouville Jersey JE3 9BQ

APEA tel/fax 0845 603 5507 www.apea.org.uk

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Nick Lambourn

November Keith Bevan Suresite Ltd 5D Millenium City Business Park Barnfield Way Ribbleton Preston Lancashire PR2 6TY

Jaime Schofield

OLE (UK) Ltd

Barn A&B Bowley Farm Estate South Mundham Chichester

West Sussex PO20 1NB GGP Consult

Unit 6, Priory TEC Park Saxon Way

Hull HU13 9PB Michael Brocksom

17 Queenswood Close Leeds

David Anderson Inform Information Systems Ltd Maidenhead Court Boathouse Maidenhead Berks SL6 8LQ

West Yorkshire LS6 3LZ David Wright

PIS (Ireland) Petroleum Installation

Solutions

Karl Hunter Rathen Ltd 18 Inisharoan Killinchy Co Down BT23 6QF

6 Gransha Green Glen Road Belfast

Antrim BT11 8AX Erkin Kucukkaragoz

Simon Coupe Warwickshire County Council Trading Standards Service Old Budbrooke Road Warwick CV35 7DP

HERMES ENERGY Engineering & Construction

Camlik Mah Ikbal Cad 176 Umraniye

Adam Slade C & A Design 2b - 3b Hathersage Business Park Heather Lane Hathersage Derbyshire S32 1DP Darragh Mc Grath Norbert Dentressangle Picow Farm Road Runcorn WA7 4UW Geoff Hewett Gilbarco Veeder Root Crompton Close Basildon Essex SS14 3BA Sean Chua CNC Petroleum Pte Ltd 1 Kaki Bukit Ave 3 #08-06 KB-1 Singapore

Istanbul 34774

Turkey Chris Savage

Gortnaskea Electrics

234 Washingbay Road Dungannon

Northern Ireland BT71 5DS Ray O’Sullivan

Great Gas Petroleum (Ireland) Ltd

Market House Churchtown

Mallow Co.Cork Ireland

Abdusalam Abuhajr

Free Lance Consultant P.O. Box 3159 Tripoli

Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

APEA tel/fax 0845 603 5507 www.apea.org.uk

December Ashley Lamont Whittaker and Watt Chartered Architects 379 Antrim Road Newtownabbey Antrim BT36 5EB Peter Hill Humber Bridge Board Ferriby Road Hessle East Yorkshire HU13 0JG Jonathan Partridge Hadfield Cawkwell Davidson Ltd 17 Broomgrove Road Sheffield South Yorkshire S10 2LZ Jude Dean P A Collacott & Company Shortacre Works Beach Road Cottenham Cambs CB24 8BW

NEW APEA MEMBERS

Ralf Thomsen TUV UK LTD Surrey House Surrey Street Croydon Surrey CR9 1XZ

Tony Pugh Staffordshire County Council Staffordshire Place 1 Wedgwood Building Tipping Street Stafford Staffordshire ST16 2DH Peter Mitchell Holme Valley Testing Unit 16, Honley Business Centre New Mill Road Holmfirth West Yorkshire HD9 6QB Jane White 127 Abbey Road (Ground right) Aberdeen AB11 9QB John Dillon Angus Council Trading Standards The Mart 13 Market Street Forfar Angus DD8 3WT Fraser Allan CBES Ltd Caledonia House Lawmoor Street Glasgow G5 0US

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UK, London. Motorists filling up their cars with wrong fuel costs Britain £150M

NEWS

Putting the wrong type of fuel in the car costs British motorists at least £150 million a year. Somebody puts diesel in a petrol tank or vice versa every one minute and 45 seconds, meaning 300,000 vehicles a year need to be repaired. It costs between £500 and £3,000 to fix a car and only half of owners can claim the cost back on their insurance. Industry experts believe the rising number of people switching to more economical diesel cars is to blame for the increasingly common gaffe.

Rory Carlin from Halfords Autocentres, which compiled the figures, said: “We saw a noticeable increase in mis-fuelling during March and September – the peak months for new-car purchase – which could be attributed to new owners. “If you put the wrong fuel in the car, do not attempt to drive off as this will circulate it and could cause more unnecessary damage.”

In May a bungling tanker driver left dozens of motorists stranded and caused thousands of pounds worth of damage to their cars after accidentally putting diesel into an unleaded storage tank. The driver caused around £14,000 worth of damage after the mix-up at a Sainsbury’s petrol station forecourt in Salford, Manchester. A total of 44 cars were affected - and owners faced bills of hundreds of pounds to get their engines fixed. Bosses at the Regent Road store in Salford closed the pumps when they discovered the mix-up. By then, reports were coming in of cars conking-out on the streets. Sainsbury’s apologised and agreed to cover the cost of repairs to the vehicles.

UK, Sussex, Uckfield.

Petrol tanker crashes near Uckfield

Emergency services were called to an incident on the A26 near Little Horsted recently after a car collided with a petrol tanker. The incident happened at 06:10 in the morning and the road was shut for a short time before being reopened at

16

around 07:00 after emergency services confirmed that no fuel had spilled from the petrol tanker, near Uckfield. One person was trapped in the car and had to be released by fire fighters before being taken to hospital. Sussex Police said the driver of the car was arrested on suspicion of a driving offence.

UK, London. HSE begins fee for intervention

The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) new cost recovery scheme, Fee for Intervention (FFI), came into force on Monday, 1 October. Under The Health and Safety (Fees) Regulations 2012, those who break health and safety laws are liable for recovery of HSE’s related costs, including inspection, investigation and taking enforcement action.

The many businesses that comply with their legal obligations will continue to pay nothing. Detailed guidance for businesses and organisations is available on HSE’s website. Developed in consultation with representatives from industry, it explains how the scheme works and includes examples of how it will be applied.

Geoffrey Podger, HSE’s Chief Executive, said: “The most basic safety mistakes in the workplace can devastate lives and result in real costs to industry. It is right that those who fail to meet their legal obligations should pay HSE’s costs rather than the public purse having to do so.” Fee for Intervention provides a further incentive for businesses to manage health and safety effectively and to operate within the law. It should also help level the playing field between those who comply and those who don’t. Employers can find practical advice, tools and case studies for controlling common risks and ensuring compliance with health and safety law on HSE’s website at: http://www.hse.

UK, London. Europe petrol stations close as majors focus on production

A move by major oil companies to focus on exploration and production has contributed to the

closure of 4,573 petrol stations around Europe since 2007, according to property consultancy CBRE. The number of petrol stations in 27 European markets declined by 3.3 percent to 132,526 in July 2012, compared to 137,099 at the start of 2007, CRBE found based on analysis of data from Datamonitor.

The biggest drop took place in Italy, with the closure of 1,250 stations, followed by the UK at 1,200 and France at 805 closures, according to the data. “This reduction can be attributed to the trend among large oil companies such as Shell, ExxonMobil, BP, and Total to divest their less profitable sites as they rationalise their downstream assets to pursue more profitable activities further upstream,” the CBRE report said.

The soaring cost of fuel and Europe’s weak economy have led to a dip in sales volumes at the pump, with a 0.55 percent decline in the first half of the year, the report said. Oil majors and independent retailers, meanwhile, are increasing the number of unmanned petrol stations to keep costs down, the report said. “(Datamonitor unit) Verdict Research forecasts that by 2013 there will be 10,616 unmanned sites in Europe, an increase of 3.7 percent,” the report said. Countries with increasing unmanned site count include Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy and Switzerland, CBRE said.

UK, East Sussex, Brighton. New firework causes severe eye injuries, warns doctors

A new type of firework caused severe eye injuries and blindness in children and adults at last year’s bonfire night celebrations, warned doctors in a letter to the BMJ. Edward Pringle and colleagues describe how on the evening of 5 November 2011, eight patients attended the Sussex Eye Hospital, five with serious eye injuries - two were blinded and the other three have a lifelong glaucoma risk.

Police inquiries suggest the new explosive was derived from “rope banger deer scarers,” which have a slow burning rope fuse that ignites

APEA tel/fax 0845 603 5507 www.apea.org.uk

several explosives along the rope.

When cut down, the fuse and explosive can be lit and thrown. All serious injuries were consistent with a blunt injury to the eyeball, caused by material within the explosive charge, explain the doctors. They also say that this rate of serious eye injury was greater than expected for a bonfire night, based on British Ophthalmic Surveillance Unit data.

“Numbers of blinding injuries have fallen in countries with legislation that controls the use and distribution of fireworks,” say the authors.

“The UK has legislation to limit distribution, but deer scarers are exempt because they are not actual fireworks.” In the UK in 2005, 52% of firework injuries occurred at public events. Yet the authors point out that there is no legislation to impose safety restrictions at firework displays as serious accidental injury is not included in the Public Order Act. They call on organisers to “actively engage their audience in safer use of fireworks and encourage eye protection” and conclude: “If we cannot create effective legislation we must create a culture that does not tolerate the throwing of banger-type explosives into crowds. Extraordinarily, this remains a challenge.”

UK, Devon, Torrington.

Road closed after car and fuel tanker collide in Langtree

A driver has been reported for driving without due care and attention after a car and fuel tanker collided near Torrington at rush-hour.

Police were called to the B3227 in Langtree just before 9am after a green Fiat Scudo and fuel tanker were involved in a collision.

A Devon and Cornwall Police spokesperson said one driver was reported for driving without due care and attention and would receive a summons to court in the post. At this early stage, police were unable to clarify which vehicle the driver who was reported for driving offences was in. Nobody was injured in the crash. Police said the fuel tank was not damaged in the accident meaning there was no fuel leak on the road. The road remained closed in both directions between the Dragon Hill junction and the Rolle

Road junction while recovery of the vehicles was carried out. Motorists were advised to expect delays and seek an alternative route where possible.

UK, Powys, Llanwrtyd Wells. Homes evacuated near Llanwrtyd Wells due to tanker gas leak

Homes were evacuated near Llanwrtyd Wells, Powys, because of a lorry tanker leaking gas. The tanker at a depot leaked 13,500 litres of propane and fire fighters used spray to suppress it. The road to Cefn Gorwydd was closed as a precaution for most of the afternoon and local train services were suspended.

A 200m (656ft) cordon was put in place while Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service dealt with the incident. The cordon extended to 500m (1,641ft) downwind of the leak until the incident was brought under control before 17:00 GMT. A fire service spokesman reported earlier: “The lorry tanker was leaking a large quantity of gas”. The service had four appliances and police, ambulance and Network Rail staff were also in attendance. Arriva Trains Wales put on replacement buses between Llandovery and Llandrindod Wells due to safety checks on the line at Llanwrtyd.

Trains only ran between Shrewsbury and Llandrindod and between Llandovery and Swansea, with delays of up to an hour. The Environment Agency sent officers as a precaution to advise the fire service, but said it was being treated as a safety incident.

UK, Croydon. Firm responsible for River Wandle red diesel spill could face £50K fine

The business responsible for the potentially disastrous red diesel leak into the River Wandle could face a fine of up to £50,000. The Environment Agency believed it had identified the source of Monday’s fuel spill and was now looking to take legal action.

APEA tel/fax 0845 603 5507 www.apea.org.uk

However, a spokesman would not give further details, saying investigations were under way to find out exactly how the incident happened. He said: “It now becomes a possible legal matter; we will look to prosecute if we can.”

The spillage of several hundred litres was discovered by J Breheny Contractors, hired by Croydon Council, when its workmen arrived on site in Wandle Park, Waddon, at about 7.30am. And their quick actions to deal with the spillage and stop it spreading downstream have been praised by the council and the Environment Agency.

The contractors were working on bringing the river above ground through the park as part of an overall £1.4 million improvement scheme. William Dalton, the site manager for J Breheny, said: “When we got to the site on the Monday we noticed that part of the river had turned red and that it was polluted with red diesel.”

While emergency calls were put out to the Environment Agency and Thames Water, workmen from the company got down to the job of stopping the spread. Mr Dalton said: “As part of our environment policy we have a lot of equipment on site and we were immediately able to put a couple of booms across the river to stop the flow downstream and threw absorbent pads into the water to soak up the diesel.” Then, working with Thames Water, the contractors used sucking machines they also had on site, to remove the oil from the water’s surface before placing it into tankers for removal.

Mr Dalton said: “We were very lucky and I think the action we took meant that very little, if any, of the diesel spread down the river. “It could have been very nasty if more of the river had been polluted.”

Mark Higginson, from the Environment Agency, said the swift action by everyone involved had stopped the situation getting worse.

He said: “This incident had the potential to seriously pollute the river and cause a great deal of environmental damage.”

A spokesman for Croydon Council added: “It appears that the spillage originated from Croydon. “It was really lucky we have the contractors on site who spotted the spill and acted quickly.” In October last year, 19

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a Nottinghamshire company was fined £20,000 and ordered to pay £10,106 in costs after pleading guilty to polluting a lake with red diesel.

UK, Blackpool. Road stays shut after tanker crash

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A major route through Wyre was closed for “several days” after a tanker overturned on the road.

Lancashire County Council says the A588 Head Dyke Lane, Pilling, was closed to through-traffic until temporary highway repair works have been carried out.

The road was completely closed between Preesall and Pilling, just west of Lamb’s Lane, with a signed diversion in place via the A585, A586 and the A6. Traffic for Pilling was advised to go via Garstang or Lancaster, and traffic for Preesall and Knott End was advised to go via Shard Bridge and Hambleton. The closure was needed after the HGV overturned, causing major damage to the road. Highways bosses said major earthworks were needed to restore the structure of the road before it could be resurfaced.

UK, Somerset.

Manslaughter charges dropped in M5 crash case

Geoffrey Counsell, 50 and from Somerset, was arrested after the crash, which involved 34 vehicles and left 51 people injured, in November 2011.

Mr Counsell will now face one charge, under health and safety laws, of failing to ensure the safety of others.

That case will be heard at a later date, Bristol Crown Court heard.

The Crown Prosecution Service authorised Avon and Somerset Police to charge Geoffrey Counsell with manslaughter in October 2012.

Chief crown prosecutor, Barry Hughes said all CPS cases are kept under "constant review".

He said: "During this review process, in December we sought further advice from a leading expert on the law of negligence and additional information was also provided by expert witnesses and police investigators.

"Based on this additional 20

information and advice, it has been decided that there is insufficient evidence to continue with a prosecution for manslaughter."

The fireworks display organised by Mr Counsell was taking place at Taunton Rugby Club, which is next to the motorway, when the crash happened.

Lorry drivers Terry Brice, from Patchway, South Gloucestershire, and Kye Thomas, from Gunnislake, Cornwall, died in the crash.

Father and daughter Michael and Maggie Barton, from Windsor, Berkshire; grandparents Anthony and Pamela Adams, from Newport, south Wales; and battle re-enactor Malcolm Beacham, from Woolavington, near Bridgwater, also died.

Speaking after the hearing, the daughter of Anthony and Pamela Adams, Tonia White said the experience had been "very traumatic".

"However we're confident in the justice system and although the CPS have discontinued the charges of manslaughter, we are led to believe there will be health and safety issues to address and are confident the outcome will remain the same," she said.

Terry Brice's parents, Jean Brice and Terry Brice were also disappointed at the manslaughter charge being dropped.

Mrs Brice said: "It's a very sensitive case, but what can we say.

"It won't stop the cruelty and misery that we have to go through for the rest of our days."

Det Sup Mike Courtiour of Avon and Somerset Police described the collision as "one of the worst in living memory" and said the force's investigation was "meticulous and complex".

Mr Counsell was originally charged with the seven counts of manslaughter, on 19 October last year.

UK, Tideford, Cornwall. Petrol Tanker Crash: ‘Environmental disaster averted’

A river containing spawning salmon was left under threat of a “major environmental disaster” after

a petrol tanker overturned in Cornwall. The Environment Agency used booms and absorbent pads to prevent fuel from leaking into the River Tiddy after the crash on the A38 near Tideford. There were fears about 4,000 litres of petrol could leak into the river as a result of a recent accident. But the agency said checks had revealed “no significant pollution”. It said there was “little evidence” of petrol in the river.

Spokesman Steve Marks said: “If the petrol had got into the water it would have been a major environmental disaster.” The agency said it was a “vulnerable time of year” because fish would be coming into the river to spawn and lay eggs. As a precaution the booms will remain in place over the weekend, but the agency said it was “very pleased a serious incident had been averted.”

Darren Maynard of Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service said: “The fuel was pouring out. “If someone had come round the corner and collided with the tanker it could have been a lot worse.” The tanker overturned as it was being towed at about 19:00 in the evening. Firefighters doused the tanker in foam to make it safe before it was removed from the scene.

The Highways Agency is examining the road surface for damage. Gary Parsons of the agency said about 600m of road had to be resurfaced. The road between Trerulefoot roundabout and Carkeel roundabout in Saltash was closed for 20 hours and reopened a day later. Devon and Cornwall Police said the road could be closed again or traffic lights put in place to be resurfaced.

UK, Gloucestershire.

One thousand litres of diesel spilled on A40 layby

Around 1,000 litres of diesel was spilled in a lay-by on the A40 near Northleach. A fire crew from Northleach were initially called to the scene just after 11pm and on arrival called for assistance from a specialist environmental team from Stroud.

Police and officers from Gloucestershire County Council’s highways department also

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Ireland, Co. Louth, Dundalk. Northern Ireland arrests over Louth laundering plant

Three men, two of whom are from Northern Ireland, have been arrested in relation to a Co. Louth illicit fuel plant which had the capacity to launder around 18 million litres of fuel a year. Officers from the Irish Revenue’s customs service and Gardaí shut down the site at Tatebane, Hackballscross, Dundalk, in the early hours of a Wednesday morning recently.

It is estimated the operation could have cost the Irish state around €9 million a year in lost revenue. Around 30,000 litres of illegal fuel, three lorries, a tanker and other oil laundering equipment were seized at the plant. Officers also recovered 36 tonnes of toxic waste and spirits on which Irish duty had not been paid.

The men were all taken to Dundalk Garda Station. The third man has an address in Co. Louth. Surveillance activity was being carried out by custom officials in the area.

Meanwhile, another plant was found in the county in nearby Courtbane in a separate operation.

This was the second discovery made inside a 12 hour period. The plant had the capacity to launder approximately four million litres of fuel annually with a potential loss to the exchequer of €2 million every year.

Twenty one thousand litres of illicit fuel, a quantity of bleaching earth, one tanker, one van and equipment were seized in a shed at the back of a private house. Officers also discovered four tonnes of toxic waste. A Revenue spokesman said the discoveries were part of an ongoing crackdown on fuel laundering.

He also warned motorists against buying illegal fuel.

“Revenue would like to remind motorists and the public that they should be aware of the risks posed to their vehicles by using laundered fuel,” he said. “It also takes much-

needed funds from the Exchequer, hurts legitimate trade and of course it is funding criminal activity.”

Ireland, Co Down, Dromore. Thousands of litres of suspected launderred diesel is seized

A flat bed lorry, containing thousands of litres of suspected laundered diesel, was seized by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in an operation over a weekend near Banbridge. HMRC stopped the vehicle on the A1.

Following a search of the vehicle, officers found a concealed tank built into the chassis of the lorry. The tank contained 3,000 litres of fuel believed to be laundered green diesel. John Whiting, Assistant Director, Criminal Investigation, HMRC, said: “Those involved in the transportation of illicit fuel care nothing for the safety of other road users. “The fact that this vehicle had been adapted to conceal a large fuel tank shows a total disregard for public safety and the safety of other road users.

“HMRC takes very seriously the unfair and illegal practice of selling illicit fuel and we would encourage anyone with information about this type of activity to contact us on our Custom’s Hotline 0800 59 5000.” A 55 year-old man from the Newtownhamilton area was arrested and interviewed in connection with the find and has been released on bail pending further investigation. The lorry and fuel were seized.

UK, Scotland, Inverness. Fire crews attend Inverness filling station fuel leak

Fire fighters have dealt with fuel leaking from a supermarket’s filling station in Inverness. Crews used foam to clear the petrol spillage at the Tesco petrol station in Holm.

The incident was reported at about 12:15 and led to the closure of the road to the Tesco on the city’s Dores Road. Highlands and Islands Fire and Rescue Service (HIFRS) said two fire appliances and a unit that sprays foam were at the scene.

APEA tel/fax 0845 603 5507 www.apea.org.uk

Police were also called to the incident. The access road to Tesco store has since reopened. The filling station remains closed and Northern Constabulary said it was not expected to open until at least lunchtime.

Azerbaijan, Baku.

Socar to open petrol station in Turkey

Socar is negotiating the acquisition of BP’s retail network in Turkey.

After careful study of retail fuel market in Turkey, The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) plans to create a network of petrol stations across the country.

According to Turkish media, SOCAR is negotiating the acquisition of BP’s retail network in Turkey.

However, it is possible that SOCAR will develop a network of filling stations in Turkey independently.

SOCAR considers Turkey as a platform to enter other markets.

SOCAR may soon enter the retail fuel market of the Balkan countries, and the Mediterranean. It was reported earlier that SOCAR is planning to conclude a deal with BP to buy 599 petrol stations in Turkey. In case the deal comes true, SOCAR will get a share of 9.8% in the Turkish retail market, which will make it the fourth-largest owner of gas stations in the country.

USA, TN, Rogersville.

Fuel delivery driver accidentally puts diesel into underground tank at Murphy Oil Station

Murphy Oil was advising customers of the Rogersville station to call an 800 number if they pumped diesel fuel into their regular petrol vehicle last month due to a mistake made by the station’s fuel delivery driver. Murphy Oil Vice President of Operations Support Services Angelos Lambis told the Times-News a fuel delivery driver accidentally put diesel fuel into an underground tank for regular petrol pumps.

Lambis said he didn’t know exactly how many customers were affected, but those who suffered 23

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attended the scene and the Environment Agency had been informed. The spill was contained within around three hours.

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mechanical problems will be reimbursed for the cost of repairs.

“We’ve had a handful right now, and we are currently taking care of those customers,” Lambis said.

“When an incident like that happens, they typically tell us right then and there, and our policy is to take care of our customers. We had the delivery that evening, and by morning we were already shut down and taking care of customers.”

Lambis added, “We stand behind the quality of our fuel, and unfortunately the carrier in this instance made a mistake in how they dropped the fuel. But we’re more than happy to take care of our customers.”

Customers will be asked to verify their proof of purchase with a receipt or credit card statement.

The cost of repairs can reach several hundred dollars.

A certified mechanic told the Times-News that although diesel fuel won’t cause permanent damage to a regular petrol vehicle, the regular petrol vehicle will not run on diesel fuel. In these cases the vehicle’s petrol tank, fuel lines, and fuel injection or carburettor system must be completely drained.

USA, Washington. BP banned from new federal contracts

The Obama administration has temporarily banned the energy giant BP from new federal contracts, citing the company’s "lack of business integrity as demonstrated" by the April 2010 Gulf of Mexico disaster.

The Environmental Protection Agency’s decision comes two weeks after BP entered into a wideranging settlement agreement with the Justice Department over criminal charges in connection with the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which killed 11 men, spewed nearly 200 million gallons of oil into the ocean and turned into the country’s worst offshore environmental 24

catastrophe.

The effects on BP’s financial health would depend on how long the ban lasts and whether it keeps the company from bidding on lucrative federal leases to tap oil and gas in places like the Gulf of Mexico, said Phil Weiss, senior energy analyst for Argus Research. Hours after the ban was issued, the Interior Department announced a lease sale on more than 20 million offshore acres in the western gulf. BP did not participate.

“If it happens once, it’s inconvenient for BP, but not that big of a deal,” Weiss said. “If it happens twice, three times, then the impact starts to escalate. The best way to do deep water is to get the acreage before it has been explored, when it is cheapest. Deep-water drilling is very important to BP, and that would have a big impact.”

The EPA said such suspensions were “a standard practice when a responsibility question is raised by action in a criminal case.” It said the suspension would be lifted when “the company can provide sufficient evidence to EPA demonstrating that it meets federal business standards.”

In separate statements, the EPA and BP underscored that the temporary suspension would affect only future contracts, not existing leases to develop oil and gas in the United States, where BP’s holdings are vast.

The company issued a statement that suggested it was working with the EPA to get the ban lifted soon.

“The EPA’s action is pursuant to administrative procedures providing for discretionary suspension until a company can demonstrate ‘present responsibility’ to conduct business with the U.S. government,” BP said. “BP has been in regular dialogue with the EPA and has already provided both a present responsibility statement of more than 100 pages and supplemental answers to the EPA’s questions based on that submission.”

A separate federal civil lawsuit over possible violations of the Clean Water Act, set to proceed in February, could bring penalties in the billions of dollars against BP. The idea of a temporary suspension of BP’s access to federal contracts emerged during the early days of the oil spill. BP has probably

been in talks with the EPA since 2010 about the penalties it could face, said David Uhlmann, a former chief of the Justice Department’s environmental crimes section and a law professor at the University of Michigan.

Uhlmann said the EPA suspension could not occur until criminal charges were filed. On Nov. 15, BP agreed to a settlement with the Justice Department under which it would plead guilty to 11 felony counts in connection with the deaths of the 11 rig workers and pay a record $4.5-billion fine.

Uhlmann said EPA suspensions were meant to give companies time to fix their problems, not punish them for past actions. Because the suspension comes almost three years after the incident, BP has already had time to fix many problems, he said, which could mean the ban will be short.

“Although it’s common for companies to face suspension or debarment when charged with environmental crimes, it is rare for major companies to be barred from government contracts for a significant length of time,” Uhlmann said. “BP already has taken steps to address its problems. I would expect that sometime in 2013, the ban should be lifted.”

USA, Ala, Huntsville.

Faulty fuel strands drivers at local petrol station

A quick stop at one local petrol station turned into anything but that on a Thursday afternoon, leaving frustrated drivers stranded for hours.

Three different cars died after their drivers filled up at the Chevron on Mastin Lake Road in north Huntsville.

One motorist told WHNT News 19 that he found water in his fuel tank, despite claims from store clerks that the pumps were clean.

Police were called to the scene, and later confirmed that roughly eight inches of water were found in the hub that feeds all of the petrol pumps. The petrol station’s owner was not at the scene and not available for comment, leaving details of how the water got into the hub a mystery. All three cars were towed away. WHNT News 19 left a message for the Chevron station

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owner, but had not heard back from him.

USA, FL, Melbourne.

Spilled soda blamed after woman crashes into petrol pumps

Melbourne police said a driver was backing out of a parking space at the 7-Eleven on Aurora Road near Mosswood Drive just before 8:30am.

Deanna Smith had just bought a drink that spilled. The spill distracted the 20 year old, and her car rolled into one of the petrol pumps.

Rhiannon Mock was pumping petrol on the other side. The pump struck Mock in the head. Mock, 30, was taken to Holmes Regional Medical Center with a laceration, and is expected to be okay. Smith was cited with failure to use due care.

Officers estimate the damage at $10,000.

USA, Keyport and Manasquan, New Jersey, USA. Petrol stations pump jet fuel by mistake

Petrol stations in Keyport and Manasquan received a delivery of jet fuel by mistake. A news agency reports the delivery was made to the Delta station located at Broad and 36th street around 4pm and pumped the wrong fuel until 7pm when the station was shut down by police.

A Lukoil station on Route 71 in Manasquan also received the delivery of jet fuel.

Police Chief George Casaletto said at least seven customers were affected by the mistake. The engines of drivers who filled up with the wrong fuel in Keyport seized up about 100 feet after driving off.

An employee at the Keyport station blamed the fuel distributor.

Delta Petroleum, now known as Par Petroleum, has not posted any comment on their company website.

A website about automobiles and driving, says that putting jet fuel into a car is like putting diesel fuel into a car that runs on regular petrol. It will not cause damage but the engine and fuel components will need to be drained and cleaned. Many

people thought they could get around high petrol prices by running their cars on jet fuel.

USA, MA, Boston.

Boston crews respond to Hazmat situation at petrol station

Patrons at a Boston petrol station got an unwelcome car wash after an overhead fire extinguishing system was accidentally set off.

Boston Fire officials said a FOX 25 release button was mistakenly pushed inside an office at Prime Petrol Station on the corner of Adams Street and Gallivan Boulevard.

That resulted in the release of a dry powder-type system. Three drivers were evaluated by Boston EMS at the scene. They are all reportedly okay following the incident. A cleanup crew was sent to the scene to wash down the entire area, including the three cars.

USA, Court to rule on poster-size tobacco apology displays

A federal judge will rule on whether convenience stores and other retailers that sell tobacco products will be required to display poster-size apologies alongside tobacco products. Should retailers post apologies from tobacco companies alongside tobacco products? That’s what U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler will decide and convenience stores, among other retailers, are not happy about it.

The ruling is part of the 1999 case brought by the government against the tobacco companies. A more recent judicial decision related to that case has ordered a multimedia campaign of mea culpas from the tobacco companies. At issue is where to display the poster-size apologies, which would take up valuable advertising space in stores.

Also upsetting retailers is the implication of guilt-by-association, considering the retailers sell the very tobacco products for which the companies are apologizing. The statements must include wording about the companies’ lies concerning cigarettes and the health impact of smoking.

The U.S. Department of Justice is working with tobacco firms about the wording and placement of the statements. However, the issue of whether retailers with an “agreement” with tobacco companies to sell their products will be required to carry the apologies has yet to be resolved.

A court of appeals returned the question about whether the First Amendment rights of stores were violated with the decision back to the lower court. With close to 40% of annual sales from tobacco products, U.S. convenience stores that don’t post the signs could stand to lose millions of revenue.

“You can’t take up valuable selling space and impact my bottom line to achieve your goal of having these corrective statements out there,” said Andy Kerstein, an operator of five New Jersey tobacco stores and president of the National Association of Tobacco Outlets.

Retailers also worry that the posters would turn away nontobacco-buying shoppers. “If you walk in someplace and you all of the sudden don’t feel as good as you did a minute earlier, you’re going to buy less. And we're not talking about tobacco,” said Jeff Lenard, NACS spokesman. “We're talking about a drink, we're talking about a sandwich.”

Canada, Ont, Minaki.

Terrifying boat explosion send five people to hospital

When Doug Gratton's boat exploded into flames with him and four family members on board, all he knew was that he was on fire and so was his family. “My son went flying up in the air and a big fireball went up in the air,” he said. “I just knew I was burning, so I jumped into the water.” Five people were taken to hospital on that Friday, including three Manitobans, after a boat explosion in the marina in Minaki, Ontario Provincial Police said.

Gratton, from Lorette, said he suffered second-degree burns on his legs, while his other family members suffered burns on their arms, legs and feet. A sixth family member, his wife Christine, was on the dock when the explosion happened. “It

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happened so fast,” she said. “I just saw the ball of fire go through the boat.” OPP in Kenora responded to the area at around 5:45 p.m. They said a five-metre boat was refuelling at the marina when the hose apparently broke, causing fuel to be pumped into the boat's hull.

Doug Gratton said he realized the problem when they went to pay and found the boat had taken in 360 litres instead of the usual 200.

“We were wondering, ‘geez, why isn't it full?’” he said. Constable Dave Cain said at least some of the extra fuel that had accumulated in the boat's hull was dumped into the water.

Gratton said the fuel had leaked from the hose into the water.

Gratton said they waited for the boat to dry out. After an hour, the boat wouldn't start, he said, but on trying again, the boat exploded. “As I turned the key, it went boom,” he said. This, he said, was followed by a second explosion and flames shot out from the back of the boat. “It was just crazy, it was hectic,” he said. “I remember people running everywhere and people screaming,” he said.

Christine Gratton said bystanders started to help, including a nurse and a girl who poured water on her burned family members. “I just can't thank them enough,” she said. Five people were taken to the Lake of the Woods District Hospital, Cain said. Doug Gratton's sister was still in hospital, Gratton said. He said he was released from hospital on the following Saturday.

South Africa, Gauteng, Westonaria.

Three hurt in service station blast

Three people were injured, two of them critically, in a blast at a service station in Westonaria on the West Rand recently, paramedics said.

“Reports from the scene indicate that a welding gas cylinder exploded, causing the three men to sustain severe burns,” Netcare 911 spokesman Chris Botha said. Two men were critically injured and another in a serious condition.

Paramedics placed one of the critical patients on a ventilator before airlifting him to Netcare Milpark Hospital.

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The other men were taken to a hospital in Krugersdorp.

Serbia, Gazprom’s Serbia subsidiary NIS prepares to take over 60 filling stations from Romania's OMV Petrom

Serbian oil and gas company Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS), majority owned by Russian Gazprom Neft, is said to be in talks to buy 60 filling stations in Romania.

NIS is one step away from acquiring 60 sites of OMV Petrom, it announced it had purchased OMV's 28 filling stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In July 2012, the Serbian company NIS said it planned to buy 40 filling stations in Romania by end-2012, reaching a total of 120 sites by end2014. Gazprom Neft's subsidiary NIS recently bought three filling stations from a Romanian businessman.

Romanian newspapers recently said that a network of 63 filling stations in Romania will make Gazprom the owner of one of the largest chains after Petrom, which operates 550 filling stations at present, Rompetrol with 450 outlets, Lukoil with 300 stations and MOL with 133 outlets).

On the local market, NIS will outpace the Agip/Eni chain of filling stations by 37 sites.

Serbian NIS has been on the retail fuel market in Bulgaria for a year and the company already owns 30 filling stations and a fuel depot in the western town of Kostinbrod.

Australia, New South Wales, Penrith. Man allegedly set petrol bowsers alight

A man was due to appear in court after he allegedly set several petrol bowsers alight in Penrith overnight.

Police alleged the 29-year-old man went to a service station on High Street about 7.45pm in the evening and demanded cash, but the attendant refused and the man sprayed fluid over several petrol bowsers, setting them alight.

The man then allegedly went into a supermarket and threatened staff

that he’d set fire to bottles of citronella oil. He then allegedly went into an adjoining liquor store and threatened to set fire to the oil, before being handed cash and he ran from the store. The man was apprehended by security staff and held until police arrived and arrested him. The man was taken to Penrith Police Station where he was charged with damage to property by fire/explosive with intent to injure, and robbery while armed with an offensive weapon (three counts). He was refused bail to appear in Penrith Local Court.

Australia, New South Wales. Lake Macquarie. Crews battle Newcastle service station fire

Dozens of people had to be evacuated because of a large fire at a service station at Lake Macquarie near Newcastle. Fifty people were evacuated from a nearby caravan park at Freemans Waterhole as fire fighters tried to contain the large blaze at the United service station on Freemans Drive.

Ten fire units were fighting the fire as they tried to stop the blaze from spreading to the gas cylinders and fuel supply at the rear of the building. Water tankers had to be brought in because of a water shortage in the area. The fire began just after 4:30am (AEST). It was expected that it would take several hours to contain the blaze.

Freemans Drive was closed in both directions until the incident was under control.

Australia, Discount giant Costco looking to join fuel war in Melbourne

International discount giant Costco is scouring Melbourne for its first cut-price service station in readiness for a fuel war. The US warehouse chain has identified sites in the southern and northern suburbs. It hopes to have its first fuel pumps flowing within a few years. A new Costco retail outlet will be built alongside the service station.

Costco’s entry in the fuel market

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Australia, New South Wales, Seaham. Man jumps from exploding petrol tanker

A New South Wales man is recovering in hospital after jumping from a petrol tanker as it blew up.

The truck was carrying unleaded petrol when it rolled several times before exploding at Seaham, north of Newcastle.

Glen Ramplin from the region’s rescue helicopter service says the man had a lucky escape. “The helicopter was called up to Seaham Road for a tanker that had rolled on the Seaham Road just south of the township up there,” he said. “A 23year-old male driver has escaped out of the vehicle just as it exploded.

“As a result he’s received extensive burns to his back, legs and buttock area.” The explosion sparked a fire in

nearby bush land, which was contained by Rural Fire Service crews.

Australia, Queensland, Brisbane. Service station operator fined for underpaying more than 200 employees

A national service station operator has been fined $46,200 for underpaying more than 200 employees. The penalty has been imposed against Freedom Fuels Australia Pty Ltd - a Brisbane-based company which operates service stations in Queensland, Victoria and NSW - in the Federal Magistrates Court in Brisbane.

The penalty is the result of a prosecution by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

Freedom Fuels Australia admitted in Court that it underpaid 234 employees a total of $191,197 between May, 2006 and July, 2009. The employees, including a number of juniors aged under-21, worked as casual and part-time console operators. A total of 169 employees in Queensland - at locations including Brisbane, Toowoomba and Goondiwindi were underpaid $112,615.

Fifty-six employees in Victoria at locations including Melbourne, Sale, Traralgon, Churchill, Moe and Morwell were underpaid $73,905, and nine employees in NSW – at Kingscliff and Moree - were underpaid $4677.

The employees were underpaid overtime rates and penalty rates for weekend, shift and public holiday work. Fair Work Ombudsman Nicholas Wilson says the Court’s decision sends a message that underpaying low-paid, vulnerable workers is a serious matter. Freedom Fuels Australia has directly backpaid the underpaid workers it has been able to locate - and has paid to the Collector of Public Monies all entitlements owing to the many underpaid workers it has not been able to locate.

Australia, New South Wales, Newport. Fire destroys car at Newport service station

A mother and her young son were lucky to escape injury after their car caught fire next to a petrol bowser at a service station at Newport on a Saturday morning. The Bilgola Plateau woman had just filled her silver 2004 Volvo four-wheel-drive at the service station at the corner of Barrenjoey Rd and Seaview Ave at 10am and had gone into the station to pay for the petrol when she saw smoke coming from under the front of her vehicle.

The woman rushed out and pulled her young son from the vehicle, while the service station attendant called emergency services. A man tried to douse the fire with an extinguisher but the fire was not contained until fire fighters arrived.

No one was injured and there was minimal damage to the service station but the vehicle was destroyed. Northern Beaches duty officer Inspector Alan Le Surf said fire fighters believed the fire was sparked by an electrical fault behind the vehicle’s dashboard.

New Zealand, Hamilton, Rototuna.

Car smashes into petrol station

Hamilton Police were investigating why a vehicle crashed through the front of a Hamilton BP Connect store recently, startling customers and staff. Emergency Services were called to the Rototuna petrol station just after 5.30pm to find a silver Volkswagon vehicle had crashed through the main doors. BP Communications and External Affairs Manager Jonty Mills said he believed the incident was accidental. “The person had been filling up at pump 5 and soon after it crashed through the front doors and took out a metal bollard in the process, Mr Mills said. “Why that happened is now in the hands of the police and we are just happy nobody was harmed.”

Mr Mills said the shop was quite busy at the time of the incident with both customers and staff on the

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will intensify competition between the other two big players, Coles and Woolworths. Costco is awaiting State Government approval, expected in February, to roll out its first petrol outlet north of Brisbane. Costco Australia managing director Patrick Noone said the Costco initiative “will be competition, competition, competition. That’s the name of the game - we would like to have several stores in the Melbourne market,” he said.

RACV public policy general manager Brian Negus said while prices would be cut, independent service stations could continue to struggle. “Putting pressure on the majors to do a better deal will increase competition,” he said.

“Any additional competition into the petrol industry we certainly welcome.”

The cheap Costco fuel will only be available to members who pay their $60-a-year Costco membership.

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main shop floor. “The shop was cordoned off and closed down for about four hours while staff cleaned everything up,” he said. Police will be viewing CCTV footage of the incident as they investigate what happened.

Fire Northern Communications manager Jaron Phillips said one fire appliance from Chartwell was sent to the scene where extraction equipment was used to cut a steel bollard to free the vehicle. Mr Mills said incidents like these were rare but “did happen on occasion”. “We are just very fortunate that nobody was injured in this instance,” he said.

New Zealand, Dunedin. Watercontaminated petrol affects about 30 cars

NEWS

About 30 motorists in Dunedin and Oamaru had engine problems after filling their vehicles with contaminated petrol. The fuel was contaminated with water during routine pipeline testing at a terminal in Dunedin . The contaminated 91octane petrol was delivered to three BP sites in Dunedin and Oamaru.

The 91-octane fuel tanks at these stations were closed after the problem was discovered but all have since reopened.

BP communications and external affairs manager Jonty Mills said about 15 Oamaru customers and three in Dunedin had reported problems. Mobil Northgate owner Beven O’Callaghan said 12 customers had experienced problems.

Mr Mills said BP had provided five rental cars to Oamaru customers, and four mechanics were brought in to repair affected vehicles. Mr O’Callaghan said it became apparent the fuel was contaminated when vehicles that had been filled up couldn’t leave the forecourt. “(The vehicles) that we organised to have repaired are all on the road now, with new filters and fresh fuel.'' A couple of customers had taken their vehicles to other workshops, which were closed for the weekend, and so were yet to get their cars back on the road. It was very rare for petrol to be contaminated, he said.

Any other customers who 32

believed they had been affected could contact any Dunedin Mobil outlet, he said. Mr Mills said the petrol was believed to have been contaminated on the Friday afternoon during routine testing of a pipeline at the industry terminal in Dunedin, which is owned by BP and operated by New Zealand Oil Services Ltd. The terminal services both Mobil and BP stations in Dunedin and the surrounding area.

A couple of trucks loaded 91 octane fuel from the terminal and delivered it to the affected sites. The problem was rectified and it was operating again about noon on the Saturday. How the water entered the pipe was subject to a full investigation, Mr Mills said.

New Zealand, Otago.

Car fire at petrol station quickly brought under control

Patrolling police officers and a quick-thinking teenager helped to avoid a potential disaster when they spotted a car on fire at a petrol station. Members of the Alexandrabased Otago Rural drink-drive team had been conducting roadside checks on motorists between Oamaru and Otematata during Labour Weekend, and officers were on hand when a Mini caught fire at an Omarama petrol station about 6pm.

Omarama Challenge service station forecourt attendant Cuillin MacKay (19) said she was working at the time of the incident, but police were on the scene “in 30 seconds”. Omarama Volunteer Fire Brigade Chief Fire Officer Howard Williams said the fire was over quickly, but added there had been “the potential” for the incident to have been much worse. “It was just a wee Mini on fire in the engine bay.

They put it out, and it was all over.”

The fire was caused by fuel leaking on to the exhaust manifold. Police kept a high profile in the Waitaki Lakes area over the long weekend to ensure there was no repeat of the alcohol-fuelled trouble seen in 2009.

Senior Sergeant Jason McCoy, of Oamaru, said barring the fire it had been a relatively trouble-free weekend. The rural drink-drive team stopped 2820 vehicles between Oamaru and Otematata, and

noted 90 offences, and two instances of drink-driving. A 14-yearold boy had been forbidden to drive after he was stopped driving through the township on a Friday night, Senior Sgt McCoy said. “It appears that his father thought it would be a good idea to give a driving lesson, but at 14, you're not allowed to drive, so, not such a good idea.” The boy's father, who was a passenger in the car, was issued with an infringement notice.

Trinidad & Tobago, Preysal. Couple in lucky escape after tanker falls on car

A Couva couple escaped death after a tanker fell on top of their car along the Solomon Hochoy Highway. Jeewan Canaan, 56, and his wife, Kamla, of Balmain, walked away from the crash with minor injuries after being trapped inside their car for almost two hours, pinned underneath the tanker.

The crash occurred in the vicinity of Preysal around 8.30 a.m. in the morning, when the Canaans were headed north along the highway.

Police said the driver of the tanker, who was not identified by police, was moving from the right lane to the left, when the Nissan Almera car swerved in front the tanker.

The tanker struck the back of the car and both vehicles lost control and veered off the highway. The couple was rescued around 10 a.m. by fire officers, who used the Jaws of Life (hydraulic rescue tool) to cut the vehicle. The Canaans were taken for treatment at the Couva Health Centre. Jeewan Canaan sustained a dislocated shoulder, while his wife and the driver of the tanker sustained minor injuries.

Saudi Arabia, Riyadh.

Building levelled as deadly Saudi tanker blast kills at least 22

At least 22 people were killed when a fuel truck crashed into a flyover in the Saudi capital Riyadh, triggering an explosion that caused the collapse of an industrial building, according to local media. The Riyadh Civil Defence spokesman confirmed there were deaths from

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what he called a traffic accident, involving a gas tanker that hit a bridge, causing a gas leak and an explosion in a nearby heavy machinery and vehicles warehouse.

“The truck driver was surprised by a road accident on its route, causing it to crash into one of the pillars of the bridge,” spokesman Captain Mohamed Hubail Hammadi said. He said the incident resulted in a “number of deaths and injuries”, without giving specific details. Saudi Arabia's Al Ekhbariya television put the death toll at 22 and at least 111 wounded. The building, several storeys high, was almost levelled by the blast, with only one corner left standing.

Several adjacent buildings were damaged and nearby vehicles, including a minibus on the flyover, caught fire, witnesses said.

Television footage and pictures posted on social media showed a body lying by burnt-out vehicles and at least two charred bodies seated in a car. More than 100 emergency personnel were combing the wreckage on the flyover and searching for victims in the rubble of the building, which housed the operations of Zahid Tractor, a distributor of heavy machinery. “I was inside the building when the blast came. Then boom, the building collapsed. Furniture, chairs and cabinets blasted into the room I was in,” survivor Kushnoo Akhtara said. “My brother was still inside under the rubble. There were lots of people in there.” This occurred whilst Saudi Arabia was still on holiday after the Muslim Eid al-Adha feast, which began on the previous Friday.

Israel, Tel Aviv gas stations are environmental hazard says state authority

State Comptroller finds major faults in metropolitan area's gas stations; says many fail to meet fire safety and/or environmental regulations. A new report by State Comptroller Yosef Shapira probing the safety and environmental procedures implemented in gas stations in Israel's cities in 2011-2012, found that in the greater Tel Aviv area - the country's largest metropolitan area - they are directly responsible for increased air, ground 34

and water pollution.

The report found that in 2011-2012, the City of Tel Aviv had jurisdiction over 62 gas s t a t i o n s , holding millions of gallons of gas, diesel and petrol; but the comptroller's review came up with “a bleak picture indicating a grave lack of s a f e t y mechanisms,” including e x p i r e d permits, failure to adhere to environmental regulations and - at some failure to adhere to fire s a f e t y regulations.

The comptroller chided the City for allowing some 13 stations to continue their operations despite having repeatedly failed fire inspectors' reviews.

According to the report, gas stations emit fumes that exacerbate air pollution and can be detrimental to the area's residents; and that some stations have failed to adhere to the Environmental Protection Ministry's directive to install fuel vapour absorption systems, or have installed ones that fail to meet the ministry's standards.

The report also levelled criticism at the ministry's Tel Aviv district department, for failing to devise a periodic review plan for the area's gas stations, and for conducting reviews at only nine stations that carry diesel – out of 49 in the area.

Similar criticism was levelled at the municipal environmental department, for failing to conduct its own reviews of the city's gas stations and for failing to follow up on various complaints filed by the residents on the matter.

The report further found that in many stations, the mechanisms meant to prevent ground and water

pollution were either inadequate or faulty. Soil pollution was found in 35 out of 50 stations, and underground water pollution was found in 15 of those 35.

“Both the Environmental Protection Ministry and the City failed to put in place a plan for periodic reviews of gas stations; nor have they reviewed any of the monitoring mechanisms required by law,” the report said.

The comptroller said that the City must “take the necessary steps, including shutting down” the stations that fail to meet the reviews; adding that the Environmental Protection Ministry “Must create a periodic review schedule for the gas stations and follow the implementation of the recommendations made in their regards, to ensure that any air and water pollution is stemmed.”

The City of Tel Aviv said that “All of the inner city gas stations have already been decommissioned. As for the commercial gas stations, those that failed to meet the fire inspectors' review had their licence suspended. The City conducts rigorous inspections for all gas

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Poland, Lotos invests in convenience and fuel operations

In a Europe of declining economic growth, markets like Poland are bucking the trend. Retail Vision’s new film from Gdansk focuses on the Lotos Paliwa business and its latest fuel retail formats.

Lotos is making significant capital investments on expanding road networks and uses the KSS Fuels LocationXpert solution to make the right decisions. Insight managing director, Dan Munford, introduces the latest Retail Vision film featuring the Polish forecourt retailer, Lotos.

Lotos is operating in a robust market, which has enjoyed 2-3% GDP growth over the last 12 months, and serves a population of 40million, says Munford. New motorway construction is benefiting the business too. Lotos is a vertically integrated oil company with business in exploration and production of crude oil plus wholesale and retail sale of petroleum products. At a time when some oil companies are selling retail stores, Lotos is investing in new outlets, reports Munford.

Chief commercial officer, Maciej Szozda, tells Retail Vision Lotos has increased its network to almost 400 sites over the last year. Polish drivers only use half as much fuel as the European average, he says. And, with over 1,200km of new motorways under construction, Lotos sees plenty of growth ahead, Szozda says.

The company operates amid strong competition, however. Lotos’s main rival has 1,800 sites; while Statoil, Shell and BP command a further 1,400 combined. In addition, the market features discount operators Auchan, Carrefour and Tesco.

Aggressive price cutting means fuel margins are really tight, says Szozda. The erosion in fuel margin is increasingly being subsidised by store-based business, reports Munford.

Lotos has rebranded its discount and premium formats and developed a store offer that provides more snacks, hot meals,

car wash, rest facilities and entertainment. Managing director of the retail business, Pawel Lisowski, says some customers are looking for a value for money offer while others are looking for more premium quality. The fuel margin is going down dramatically, he says, and is the main reason Lotos decided to develop the non-fuel part of the business.

The store offer includes a convenience shop, food concepts and a new coffee point, offering hot meals and quality coffee. Lisowski reports Lotos opened 50 gas stations under the Optima banner this year, targeting the economic segment looking for value for money. A further 50 are under development, he says.

Lisowski reports Lotos has worked closely with KSS Fuels and its LocationXpert tool. It reduces the possibility of mistakes and provides an independent market view that helps Lotos make the best business decisions, he says.

Szozda tells Retail Vision he can’t imagine life without it and claims expansion would have not been possible without the solution. It enables Lotos to measure effects on the operational side of the business such as cannibalisation, for instance.

Richard Abrams from KSS Fuels highlights the benefits of LocationXpert in enabling operators to optimise their networks. “The tool is used by more successful petrol retailers around the globe than any other,” he says.

LocationXpert lets Lotos test its innovations and see the sales impact in advance, he says. That reduces the front end risk and means it can go to market with confidence.

KSS Fuels is serving the retail industry in growth markets such as Eastern Europe and Russia and in Western Europe where there is less growth potential.

However, LocationXpert is applicable in all markets - mature and growing markets, says Abrams.

Poland, Shell takes over Neste filling station

Anglo-Dutch fuel giant Shell signed an agreement with Neste Oil

for the purchase of Neste's filling station in Poland for EUR 80 million, Neste Oil informed on its website.

The transaction is to be finalized in the first half of 2013. Neste has 105 filling stations in Poland. Neste Polska generated EUR 250 million sales in 2011.

Fuel groups PKN Orlen and Lotos were also interested in purchasing Neste's Polish filling station chain.

United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi. Selfservice fuel pumps given another chance in Abu Dhabi

Half the pumps in each Adnoc petrol-station forecourt will be converted to automatic. At the moment there are five automated machines at different petrol stations but none is in operation. No deadline has been set for the change, said Khalid Mubarak, the company's Abu Dhabi retail sales manager.

Drivers will still have the option of being served by attendants but Mr Mubarak said the new system would be more convenient for customers.

Adnoc will introduce a redeemable point system to tempt more drivers to use the self-service pumps. Points can be redeemed at Adnoc stations for food and water.

Adnoc introduced self-service pumps in Abu Dhabi about three years ago but they proved unpopular and were converted back after a few months. An Adnoc superintendent said many people exploited a flaw in the old selfservice machines by removing their credit cards before the transaction was complete, thus getting fuel without paying for it. Self-service is common in Europe and the US, where the culture and climate are different.

In the region, only Turkey has full self-service fuel stations. One attendant at the forecourt of an Adnoc station said: “If it's implemented, I am not afraid of losing my job. I am someone who believes that if one door closes other opens. But I don't think it's workable in this climate as many people prefer to remain in their airconditioned car.” In December 2008, Adnoc announced the end of

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stations to ensure that they meet all fire safety regulations.”

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a three-month self-service experiment at 10 petrol stations in Dubai. And a supervisor at the Emarat petrol station on Al Wasl Road in Dubai, said: “Three or four years back we had self-service but currently we do not have it at any of our stations.”

Nigeria, Abuja. Petrol station gutted by fire

NEWS

What would have been a major human disaster was recently averted by sheer providence when a fuel tanker belonging to MRS Petroleum Limited caught fire while discharging fuel at one the company’s facilities along Gwarinpa-Kubwa Expressway.

The incident which occurred at about 5.45pm saw the entire fuel station covered with thick smoke from the tanker fire. The filling station is known to always have heavy stock of product and as such there is usually a lengthy queue of motorists seeking to buy fuel every day at the place. However, as luck would have it, many motorists who had lined up all day to buy fuel just escaped being caught up in the fire by the whiskers.

The motorists left the filling station after the staff told them that fuel had been exhausted, in good time before the tanker off-loading fuel suddenly burst into flames. Just as no motorist was affected by the fire, also none of the staff of the petrol station suffered any major injury as everyone scampered for safety as soon as the fire broke out.

It took the Fire Service men from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Command less than an hour to put out the inferno. What could be seen after the fire had been put out was the charred remains of the tanker and some burnt sections of the station. Staff of the station who spoke said the fire may have been caused by a metal spark which immediately spread like wild fire.

Russia, Orenburg.

Man escapes injuries after cars crash at petrol station

Talk about lucky. One man narrowly escaped disaster when 36

several cars crashed around him at a gas station in Orenburg, Russia.

Footage of the bystander's incredibly fortunate getaway was captured on camera and was posted to YouTube by user Claudio Paskuale.

The video shows the moments leading up to the crash, as well as the man's horrified reaction when he realizes what's about to happen. The two primary vehicles in the video were a Kamaz truck and a bus, which had 30 passengers on board, Russia Today reports.

Both automobiles hit at least three other cars, but luckily, no one sustained severe injuries. YouTube user Claudio Paskuale called the video's star the “luckiest dude in Russia.” While unscathed, Russia Today pointed out the situation could've had catastrophic consequences for others. “Though a stand covering the petrol pumps was hit, no fuel apparently leaked, and what could have been a massive blast involving dozens of casualties did not happen,” the news organization noted.

Russia, Moscow.

Firefighters battling blaze after tanker explosion

It was reported that a fire in a Tver car park caused a petrol tanker to explode, and fire fighters were still battling the blaze a day later, in news reports of a December evening.

The fire, which broke out on Tver's Khrustalnaya Ulitsa just before 10pm spread to four buses belonging to the Rosturservice tour operator, one minibus and two tankers containing flammable propane gas, RIANovosti reported. One of the tankers later exploded, sending a mushroom cloud into the air, as can be seen in a video posted on YouTube “Propane tank explodes in Russian city”.

Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. Plan for 74 more Petronas stations costing RM200mil

Petronas Dagangan Bhd (PDB), the retail arm of Petroliam Nasional

Bhd (Petronas), has allocated about RM200mil in capital expenditure to build 74 petrol stations nationwide this year. “We have 977 stations nationwide currently and expect to have more than 1,000 by year-end,” said PDB retail business division senior general manager Akbar Thayoob at a signing ceremony to renew its partnership with one-stop electronic payment service provider, E-pay (M) Sdn Bhd recently.

“It's a record number. So far we have never done that many before but we're on an aggressive network expansion. “It's a tall order but we are committed to doing it. This will allow us to reach each and every corner of the country and we expect to surpass 1,000 stations not later than October,” he said. PDB signed a nine-year extension agreement with E-pay to provide electronic payment services for mobile reloads, online games topups, event tickets and bill payment collection at all Petronas stations via Verifone terminals distributed by GHL Systems Bhd, an end-to-end payment services enabler. E-pay is currently distributing its products to more than 800 Petronas stations nationwide, bringing in an average revenue of RM30mil a month. E-pay chief executive officer Danny Leong said the company would be investing some RM1mil to deploy its terminals at the remaining Petronas stations currently where the payment service provider is not yet present.

E-pay will be providing Touch n' Go reload services at all Petronas stations. Progressively, we plan to introduce more products,” said Leong, adding that the company recorded a 15% year-on-year growth in revenue last year.

Revenue growth from its tie-up with Petronas was about 25% during the same period.

Malaysia, Petronas inaugurates energyefficient “twin petrol stations”

To maintain themselves as the local market leader in the oil and gas industry, Petronas Dagangan Berhad (PDB) just launched two new energy-efficient “twin petrol stations” in the district of Kajang,

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Selangor earlier this month. The “firstof-its-kind” side-by-side stations are Petronas Solaris Putra along Lebuhraya PLUS and Petronas Solaris Serdang along Lebuhraya Besraya.

This new breed of petrol stations offer customers the convenience of a rest stop for their travelling needs with different services and experiences. There are four energywhich efficient characteristics separate these two stations from the regular stations, specifically, having solar photovoltaic panel, lightemitting diode (LED) lights, rain water harvesting, and nitrogen tyreinflator.

The solar photovoltaic panel has the capacity to generate around 200KW of electricity per hour. This power source is equivalent to the energy needed to supply 90 households a year. With this innovative move, the station can reduce greenhouse emissions by approximately 138 tons of carbon dioxide annually.

The two station's lighting installation reduces electricity expenditure while providing better lighting illumination to the area. Also, the LED lights are regulated by an energy management system which controls and manages the airconditioning temperature at the station to provide a comfortable environment for customers.

As part of Petronas' water conservation efforts, the rain water harvesting system was built to prevent water being wasted. The station stores approximately 82,500 litres of water to be recycled and used only for cleaning, watering plants, and lavatory flushing.

The nitrogen tyre-inflator is an environmentally-friendlier alternative that assists in enhancing fuel economy and tyre life.

Other than being part of the global movement in conserving the environment, Petronas also personalised the twin stations to be strategic meeting points and hangout location. Towards this, an event called Solaris Skool of Rock was held at the Solaris Stage location between the two stations.

“A place like this is what we believe can be turned into a meeting point. It's a place where people can come together to meet, hang-out, and chill out. This is basically like a Petronas rest and 38

recreation area and it's part of our challenge to see things differently,” said the companys retail business division senior general manager Akbar Md Thayoob.

The 70-minute Solaris Skool of Rock kicked off with the local two member group Sound Syndicate performing five songs in Malay and English before a small but appreciative crowd of travellers who had stopped at the twin stations for a respite. They were followed by local artiste Balarajan who, strumming a guitar, dished out nine songs mainly from the 1980s and 1990s, also in Malay and English.

“All along, Petronas has been challenging ourselves to have a one-stop station for the convenience of our customers and with these twin stations which are strategically located, we have provided a hundred parking bays for customers to park and enjoy our facilities.

China, Queuing round the block Taxis powered by natural gas forced to line up for four hours a day as demand soars

An enormous queue of taxis is seen round the block waiting to fill up their tanks with natural gas at a station Taiyuan, capital of northern China's Shanxi Province. Due to rising petrol costs, some Chinese cities have converted their taxi fleets to run on natural gas.

However, due to a current lack of gas stations where they can fill up, drivers are often forced to queue for hours. One driver said that he spends three to four hours each day waiting to get fuel.

Natural gas fuel combustion

produces significantly less harmful emissions than petrol and in 1999 Chinese authorities set a 10 per cent target for clean vehicles as a portion of the overall vehicle population.

The total number of taxis in China is more than 1.1 million, half of which have gas engines.

China is already among the top seven gas vehicle markets and, according to the country’s national plan, China’s natural gas vehicle ownership will be 1.5 million in 2015 and 3 million in 2020.

China produces more than 18 million vehicles annually and has approximately 112 million vehicles.

Thailand, Bangkok.

Oil firms replace petrol 91 with Gasohol

Major oil companies plan to replace petrol 91 with gasohol E20 nationwide when regular petrol is officially phased out from next January. The move came after the Energy Ministry last week increased the subsidy for E20 by one baht a litre to encourage motorists to shift from regular petrol to bio-fuels.

PTT Plc, Thailand's energy flagship, and majority state owned Bangchak Petroleum Plc (BCP), say they are ready to make E20 available across the country as demand is strong for ethanol-based petrol.

Saran Rangkasiri, an executive vicepresident, said E20 will be available at 600 petrol stations by yearend and at 1,000 next year.

It is now stocked at 394 PTT stations out of its 1,300 sites across the country. About 300 PTT stations will stock premium gasoline 95, which is currently available at very few. Only 20 PTT stations now sell gasohol E85 in Bangkok.

By next year, the fuel will be found at a PTT station in each province. Mr Saran said sales of E20 had more than doubled to 11 million litres a month from last year as its price became cheaper. ''Although all locally made automobiles have been compatible with E20 since 2009, motorists have remained reluctant to switch to bio fuels as

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they are worried about their car's engine.

This is still a major challenge for oil traders and policy makers,'' he said.

Yodphot Wongrukmit, a senior executive vice-president of Bangchak, said E20 is available at 300 of its stations, and the number will double to 600 by the year-end and reach 800 next year. Bangchak has 1,080 stations. He said the company expects E20 sales will increase to 20-23 million litres per month from 15 million at present. ''Vehicles compatible with E20 have surged to 2.8 million units out of the 7 million units running on the streets,'' said Mr Yodphot. Kurujit Nakornthap, deputy energy permanent secretary, said ethanol demand is targeted to top 2 million litres per day, up from 1.3 million at present.

However, ethanol still has a surplus, with 20 manufacturers producing 3.2 million litres daily.

Another manufacturer is due to come on stream with a capacity of 1.8 million litres.

Thailand, As oil giants depart, PTG gets serious about its development in Thailand

Most people in the retail oil industry think the business has matured over many years, but Pitak Ratchakitprakarn, chief executive of PTG Energy Plc (PTG), the operator of PT petrol stations, thinks otherwise.

The withdrawal of international oil retailers such as Conoco, Petronas and Kuwait Oil from the Thai market is also another sign that this business is no longer as attractive as it used to

Franklin Fueling Systems acquires Flex-ING Inc.

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be.

While other oil companies may have scaled down or even shelved their investment budgets, PTG is planning to expand its petrol station network nationwide. Mr Pitak said the petrol market in Bangkok and its vicinity has matured but the situation is different in large cities in central and northeastern provinces.

Land prices in Bangkok are getting expensive, mainly because of the property boom, causing retail fuel investment to take a long time to break even, said Mr Pitak. Major oil traders and foreign fuel retailers are always looking for potential locations in Bangkok as well as those on main roads and along highways outside the capital. They somehow have played down the fact that some large cities in the Central region and Northeast still hold high potential.

According to Mr Pitak, there are currently 20,000 petrol stations in the country, of which 15,000 are operated independently by private landlords or investors. Some of these service stations are operated by elderly persons who are close to retirement and may possibly close down the business soon, he said.

He added that petrol stations on local roads also have high business potential. “We want to work with those independent operators by offering them good returns,” said Mr Pitak.

At present, there are only 30 PT petrol stations in Bangkok where the retail oil market is experiencing a glut.

Countrywide, the company's service stations have expanded from 360 units in 2010 to 570 units at present with the aim to succeed the

Thai unit of Royal Dutch Shell as the third largest retail oil operator in Thailand after PTT and Bangchak Petroleum Plc. Last year, PTG also improved its non-oil services and introduced a new concept of very large petrol stations with the first one located in Ayutthaya. By the end of next year, the company targets to have 700 petrol stations in operation, mostly in the central region and the Northeast.

One factor that has enabled PTG to maintain cost competitiveness is its logistic operations including tank farms and fuel trucks. Trucks are now able to carry 45,000 litres of petrol each, up 50% from 30,000 litres previously to trim down transportation cost.

Good management of seven fuel tank farms located in different parts of the country is another costcontrol.

Mr Pitak said PTG's new strategic oil stations will also target trucks and other large vehicles that consume a large amount of petrol in addition to passenger cars and pickups.

Formerly known as Paktai Chueplerng Co, the company was established in 1988 after Thailand liberalised the retail fuel business.

The company submitted a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week to float its shares on the Thai bourse, seeking to raise funds to open 100 petrol stations annually over the next five years. The operator of PT stations aims to sell 420 million shares in an initial public offering (IPO) this year, representing 25.15% of its existing registered capital, at a par price of one baht a share.

composite manhole covers, dispensing hoses, as well as other storage tank hardware and accessories.

Don Kenney, President of Franklin Fueling Systems, stated “Flex-ing has great product lines that extend the Franklin Fueling Systems offering to our customers. The Flex-ing team has done a tremendous job in building a solid market for their products in North America, and we believe we can leverage our existing Franklin Fueling Systems distribution channels

to offer those products internationally as well.”

With this acquisition, Franklin continues to add to its already robust product offering and further solidifies its position as the industry’s preferred total system solution provider. Notable new additions to the Franklin offering include a comprehensive line of fire-rated flexible pipe connectors, a line of lightweight composite manhole covers and several conventional hose options.

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NEWS/PRESS RELEASES

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Franklin Fueling System is looking forward to bringing these new products to its global customer base. Look for more information in the coming weeks.

Franklin Fueling Systems is a wholly owned subsidiary of Franklin Electric Co., Inc., a global leader in the production and marketing of systems and components for the movement of water and automotive fuels. Recognized as a technical leader in its specialties, Franklin Electric serves customers around the world in residential, commercial, agricultural, industrial, municipal and fueling applications.

For further information, visit www.franklinfueling.com.

KPS and Durapipe to co-operate on a technology transfer in conductive petrol piping

PRESS RELEASES

Kungsörs Plast AB, the supplier of the KPS Petrol Pipe System and Durapipe UK, a company in the Aliaxis Group today announce a technology transfer co-operation project regarding conductive petrol piping for use mainly on filling station forecourts.

Durapipe has decided to undertake a major investment in pipes and fittings for their new PLX ESD system to be introduced during 2013.

Martin Gisbourne, Managing Director of Durapipe: “We recognise the big effort KPS has made over the years with regards to conductive pipework for use with petrol. We have noted an increased interest from our customers for this kind of product and when we looked deeper into this subject we found that there are valid arguments for developing a conductive system.

KPS have kindly agreed to grant access to some of the knowledge and patents that they hold for this application.”

Lars Selling, CEO of KPS: “We are positive towards the work Durapipe are now doing on developing a conductive piping system. We are happy to engage in technical cooperation to support them although we remain independent competitors.”

Conductive piping closes a gap 40

that has long existed in the distribution of petrol where the vast majority of all equipment used for transportation of fuel is of electrically conductive properties in order to dissipate any static electricity to earth. Conductive piping from KPS and Durapipe complies with requirements in EN 14125, EN 134631 (Non-electrical equipment for use in potentially explosive atmospheres), ATEX 95 (Product Directive) and ATEX 137 (Worker’s Safety Directive).

MFG Adds 10 Stations To Its Network

Top 50 Indies forecourt operator, Motor Fuel Group (MFG) has grown its network to 58 stations with the acquisition of 10 stations from Shell.

Jeremy Clarke, MFG’s Managing Director said: “This acquisition adds some high volume stations to our network. They are located in the Midlands and the South and all fit into our model by offering customers a great forecourt and shop offer.”

He continued: “All of these new stations are now BP branded and after a shop refit they will be offering the extensive and competitive range of Costcutter products.

“It’s good to end our first year of trading with some positive news. We will continue to look at opportunities for growth during 2013 while maintaining our ongoing investment on our forecourts and in our shops.”

The Forecourt Show 2013

Make a date in your diary for April 14-16 2013 because that’s when The Forecourt Show (formerly FFE – The Forecourt & Fuel Equipment show) will take place at the NEC Birmingham. The organising team

listened to their audience and following a review of the visitor research, the show name is now officially The Forecourt Show.

Rest assured, it’s the same great show just with a brand new name.

Needless to say, many of the biggest suppliers in the forecourt industry will be present at the show including Harvest Energy, which continues to strengthen its brand presence across the UK, signing up new independent operators on a regular basis. The company has also just been named as one of Britain’s top 10 most progressive biofuels and biochemicals by the NNFCC. Fuel firm Greenergy exhibited for the first time at FFE 2012 and the company’s head of retail support, Ewan Alexander, was so pleased at how the event helped raise the brand’s profile that the company will be at The Forecourt Show 2013.

Another exhibitor will be car wash firm Istobal, which recently signed a three-year contract to maintain all of Top 50 Indie Motor Fuel Group's existing valeting, vacuum and air/water equipment.

Other high-profile companies at The Forecourt Show will include car wash company Karcher; fuel dispensing specialists Gilbarco Veeder-Root, Tokheim and Wayne; forecourt services firm Air-Serv; and Phillips 66’s Jet brand.

Visitors will be able to see new products first hand and also hear what these companies can do to help them boost their business.

With six months to go until the event next April, there are only 20 stands left and you can expect them to be filled by top forecourt suppliers.

Networking opportunities will abound at The Forecourt Show, so visitors can catch up with old acquaintances and make lots of new ones.

As well as the new name, there will be some exciting new initiatives unveiled at The Forecourt Show 2013. We can’t reveal full details yet but they will be designed to help visitors get the most out of this fantastic industry event.

Remember, The Forecourt Show 2013 – everything for the forecourt industry, all under one roof.

For more details log onto www.forecourtshow.com.

APEA tel/fax 0845 603 5507 www.apea.org.uk

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Fuel Measurement Integrity, Mathematical Rules and False Documentation in Petrol Retailing

By Peter L Barlow BSc (Hons), C.Chem, FRSC, FEI Technical Consultant to Petrol Retailers

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Your nuts, Sir! Over the past couple of years I have been carrying out informal tests on friends, acquaintances and business contacts presenting them with three walnuts and five hazelnuts and asking them, “Can you add these? What is the answer?” Most people, after looking at me strangely for asking such a simple question, said the answer was eight!

Then I presented them with three tomatoes and five grapes and asked them, “Can you multiply these?” Most people, still with questioning looks, gave the answer fifteen. Only when I asked, “Fifteen what?” did the light of dawning begin to appear that these were not the right answers. When I asked William, my fourteen year old grandson, the ‘nuts’ question he gave the answer, “Three walnuts and five hazelnuts”, i.e you can’t do the sum. Simple! In total, only about 6% of the people tested immediately responded that they could not do the sum - because the items were different.

Primary schools teach that you can't add a number of apples to a number of oranges because apples and oranges are demonstrably different. Secondary schools teach 'conversions' mathematical problems of, for example, adding a distance in metres to one in yards; where one distance must be converted to the units of the other so that the total distance can be calculated. The sum A + B = C can only be done when A, B and C refer to the same units.

‘What’, you may well ask, ‘has this got to do with petrol retailing?’ An extraordinarily large amount, as it happens. It has affected petrol retailers and motorists adversely over the last nineteen years and will continue to do so until Government 42

Departments, the retail fuels sector and fuel suppliers get their acts together.

tables and product densities, into the volumes in standard litres which would be occupied at 15°C. Volumes measured in litres without regard for temperature are variously referred to by oil suppliers as bulk litres, measured litres, natural litres, gross litres or, most significantly, uncorrected litres. I shall use the term non-standard litres instead.

Catastrophically, such essential standardisation was not carried through to transactions between oil suppliers and petrol retailers nor to those between retailers and motorists, thus depriving both retailers and motorists of fair and comparable measurement. I will not dwell here on the ignoble reasons why the bulk of UK motor fuel is still sold to petrol retailers, commercial consumers and motorists in nonstandard litres. That is another and equally surprising story but considerably longer.

The pivotal importance of the consistency of units Oil suppliers, as the responsible taxpayers, pay hydrocarbon oil duty on petrol, diesel, kerosene, and several other petroleum- and biofuel-based products as they are fed into the market. Back in 1993, they and Her Majesty's Customs and Excise Department (now HM The monumental mathematical Revenue and Customs) together lost blunder sight of the fundamental The astonishing blunder illustrated mathematical principle that you below stems from the European cannot add, multiply, divide or Commission’s well-meaning but subtract quantities in units which are demonstrably incomplete 1992 Duty different. So here is, for them, the Harmonisation Directive through acutely embarrassing example of which the duties on hydrocarbon the pivotal importance of ensuring oils must be levied on volumes consistency of units. measured in standard litres.

As with most materials, oil products Consequently, to implement this expand on heating and contract on legislation and produce a wholesale cooling. So the mass and energy ‘pence per litre’ unit price to petrol content of a specific volume will retailers, oil suppliers added one vary with temperature. At the price element, including the costs of manufacture and beginning of the last century, to product ensure fair measure for the rapidly distribution along with the wholesale expanding trade in crude oil and oil margin, to the other element, the products, standard US gallons and hydrocarbon oil duty, without taking standard Imperial gallons at a account of the units. From 15th defined temperature of 60 °F were October 1993 they carried out, for separately instituted for oil volume most motor fuel customers, the measurement. Now, a metricated addition illustrated in Box 1. In the Europe and many other countries in boxes below and on the next page, the world use the standard litre at 15 the quantities themselves are °Celsius as a reference measure to irrelevant, only the units are important. But the oil suppliers were eliminate the distortion of Box 1 - Simplified example of an oil supplier's price build-up temperature on for a non-standard litre of petrol as widely applied from October 1993 the trade in liquid energy Pence per litre products.

Oil Cost of product, marketing, distribution, product volumes and supplier's margin 40 pence at any other 60 pence temperature are Cost of duty converted, using Total cost 100 pence measurement

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Box 2 - Simplified example of an oil supplier's price build-up for a nonstandard litre of petrol as it should be represented with the correct units Cost of product, marketing, distribution and supplier's margin 40 pence per non-standard litre Cost of Duty

60 pence per standard litre

Total cost

?????? pence per ??????

The effect on invoices to petrol and, as illustrated in Box 4, the retailers calculation cannot be done where Now consider the invoices, the multiplier and multiplicand are in stemming from this failed inconsistent units. mathematics, received by petrol retailers and other Box 4 – Example of invoice showing false data when multiplier and multiplicand are in different units commercial customers of oil suppliers. As illustrated in Box 3, the measured volume into the road tanker has been expressed since 1993, in the vast majority of cases, in nonstandard litres. This has to be multiplied by the unit price. But the unit price should be a blank because the sum, illustrated in Box 2, Invoice calculations can Box 3 - Example of post 15th October 1993 invoice, only be correct if the unit showing false data because the unit cost cannot exist in costs are in pence per pence per non-standard litre standard litre and the fuel volumes are measured in standard litres.

Because, using a mixture of units, there are no valid answers to either the additions or multiplications there can be no sub-totals on invoices from which to calculate the 20 % VAT additions to provide cannot be done and the units invoice totals. cannot be defined. They are neither pence per standard litre nor pence Millions upon millions of false per non-standard litre. Box 3 documents produced indicates in red the information So the bombshell is that, from which cannot exist because of the October 1993 when the EC Directive use of inconsistent units. was brought into UK law, the vast Even if the oil suppliers were to majority of fuel invoices generated express their cost elements in pence by oil suppliers for petrol retailers and per standard litre so they could commercial customers based on produce a valid sum and arrive at a non-standard litre measurements of unit price in pence per standard volume were false documents. The litre, (which many will have difficulty $64,000 question for the VAT man, doing because of their contract for fuel purchasers, and fuel terms) they would still be unable to suppliers not to mention their produce a meaningful invoice accountants is whether this almighty unless the volume metered onto the blunder would invalidate the VAT road tanker was also in standard returns of both oil suppliers and their litres. Consistency of units must be customers because no valid VAT maintained for the multiplication figures were produced. What does

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‘uniformly’ wrong. Their mistake was in assuming that they were simply adding pence. They did not recognise that a cost element based on pence per non-standard litre cannot be added to the duty in pence per standard litre because they are different units. The standard litre encompasses the volume, density and temperature of a fuel whereas a non-standard litre is simply a volume which takes no account of temperature.

The fundamental mathematical issue is not that, through inconsistency of units, you get an answer to the addition which is different, it is that the sum cannot be done. In reality, there is neither an answer to the numerical addition because the numbers will change as the measurement units change nor to the resulting units - because the sum’s units can be neither pence per standard litre nor pence per non-standard litre - as illustrated in Box 2.

One accountant, to whom I tried to explain the issue, could not grasp the concept of there being no answer and, therefore, no equation.

With a pragmatic approach, he tried to rationalise the issue by attempting to quantify the difference between the answers which have appeared on oil supplier invoices and the numerical answers which should have appeared had consistency of units prevailed.

However, the mathematical problem is that unless there is consistency of units there are no answers, there are just blanks.

Nothing! Nichts! Rien! Nada! It is the same in any language. So he should be comparing a blank space on the one hand with the correct answer on the other, and in that comparison there is the world of difference. In other words, and letters, with A and B having inconsistent units the equation A + B = C does not exist.

‘C’ cannot exist because ‘A’ and ‘B’ cannot be added. The ‘equals’ sign does not exist because there is no ‘C’ so there is nothing to equal. The ‘plus’ sign is redundant because the addition of ‘A’ and ‘B’ cannot be completed. So you are left without an equation or an answer, just a separate and incompatible ‘A’ and ‘B’, as William said.

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the VAT man do when the information presented is not just numerically wrong, it cannot exist?

For the UK, for the period from 1993 - 2010 inclusive, a little over 670,000 kilotonnes of motor fuel were delivered. At, say, 35 tonnes per road tanker this amounts to over 19 million deliveries and at least the same number of invoices, probably very many more because there are more fuel products than just petrol and diesel to which hydrocarbon oil duties apply. There must, surely, be major challenges here for the thousands upon thousands of accountants having petrol retailers, transporters, farmers and other dutiable fuel purchasers as clients.

The permanent and necessary answer to the problem is, of course, to change the measurement of volume for all dutiable oil products from non-standard litres to standard litres throughout the measurement chain from oil supplier to consumer.

This will provide for retailers and consumers the fair measure which applies to government duty. The blunder should have been recognised by the EC and Member States before the 1992 Directive was agreed and steps taken to phase in standard litre measurement. Now, it is catch up time. Some oil suppliers have recently started to measure and invoice to petrol retailers in standard litres, as word gets around,

but by no means all.

The nationwide introduction of standard litres for dutiable fuel measurement across the board will ensure that whether in summer or winter, whether in Aberdeen or Brighton, whether fuel is from a hot fuel or cool fuel distribution terminal, retailers, motorists and commercial consumers will be buying the same amount of energy in their litre.

Because the standard litre removes fuel temperature as a factor in motor fuel purchase the price on the service station pole will gain greater significance as an indicator of the price of the energy than it has at present.

The impact on petrol retailing!

1. Neither Government departments nor oil suppliers can continue to operate in contravention of mathematical rules.

Mathematical rules are universal and trump EU or UK law.

2. It is now very clear that the volume of all dutiable oil products must be measured and invoiced in standard litres, and should have been so since 15th October 1993.

3. Retailers should address with their suppliers, their accountants and HMRC how their VAT records are to be corrected.

4. Some retailers are introducing Automatic Temperature Compensated (ATC) dispensers because, not before time, their suppliers have relatively recently changed to delivering standard litres instead of non-standard litres.

5. The universal supply of fuel volume in standard litres to retailers and motorists will and should accelerate the conversion to ATC so that traded fuel temperature is no longer a stock loss or gain issue.

This will, finally, put to rest the inequity of ‘hot fuel’ deliveries as well as ensuring that hydrocarbon oil duty as an indirect tax does not impact on retailers, only on the consumers.

6. Inconsistency of units is also to be found in very many of the Plattsbased contracts currently issued by oil suppliers in the UK. This also should be addressed by suppliers and retailers.

Peter L Barlow BSc (Hons), C.Chem, FRSC, FEI Technical Consultant to Petrol Retailers Peter Barlow Associates Tel: 01420 563435 Mobile: 07412 890009 E-mail: peter.barlow@pba.gb.net

Interview with Michael O’Kane

By Brian Baker

Michael O’ Kane has been a strong supporter of the APEA for some years now and I again briefly caught up with him at APEA Live 2012. I was able to field a few questions to him about being a specialist in vapour recovery, predominantly in Ireland. Here is what he had to say.

Michael, it is always a pleasure seeing you and we have known each other for some years now but I’ve never asked you just exactly how you got into the downstream 44

petroleum industry. Can you tell us how that came about?

Well I qualified as a Civil Engineer from Queens University in Belfast and started working as a Site Engineer on Roads Schemes in “the North” and then as a Project Engineer on a Main Drainage Tunnel in Dublin in “the South” and from there took a job as a Retail Engineer in the Head Office of an Irish subsidiary of an oil major to commence my career in the petroleum industry.

This was the latter half of the “70’s” when the main thrust of activity at

petrol filling stations was the introduction of self service, the erection of canopies, the conversion of old garage-type buildings into shops, the introduction

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of automatic car washes, etc.

The Whiddy Island disaster struck in early 1979 when a tanker, the Betelgeuse, broke up while offloading crude oil to the Bantry Bay Oil Terminal with the loss of 50 lives. This focused minds in the oil industry in Ireland on Health & Safety and Environmental Protection issues and precipitated the introduction of increased Regulatory Controls in late 1979, namely various sets of Regulations under the Dangerous Substances Act 1972 - for Oil Jetties, Bulk Terminals, Service Stations, the so called “DSA Regs”.

In the aftermath I was given responsibility for the more operational activities of Tank Farms at Terminals and Ships Discharges at Jetties where safety practices were tightened up considerably. Tank Farm infrastructure was targeted for more substantial upgrading to achieve standards set out in the DSA Regs.

My early input was with Base Foam Injection systems to Tank Farms and the installation of Internal Floating Covers for large volume vertical above ground tanks and incorporated extensive floor repairs, wall stiffening, internal wall lining, roof fitment alterations, etc., in conjunction with tanks being out-ofservice for Safety and Environmental upgrading.

I had been appointed Health and Safety Officer and bought into the new dispensation post Whiddy Island, Betelgeuse, DSA Regs making Safety issues in hazardous work areas in particular, an integral part of my approach to whatever I have been involved with in the Oil Industry since then.

So you have quite a broad base of knowledge but you decided to focus on vapour recovery Installations. Can you tell me what it is you actually do?

During the “80’s” I became interested in the issue of “Losses” after joining a study team to investigate excessive losses figures at a particular Tank Farm. After checking for and eliminating the possibility of real losses I had to get a grip on the impacts of factors such as temperature, layering, standing losses, draw down losses, breathing losses, tank calibration, out-turn 46

metering, etc. The technology of rapour recovery was being introduced in the USA around this time and I first became interested in it as a losses control means.

However I readily accepted that its primary function was to remove harmful VOC’s from the lower atmosphere where they could cause Health problems via benzene content and environmental pollution via photochemical smog.

In the late “90’s” I had started to offer freelance Regulation Compliance Services to the oil industry in Ireland ranging from risk assessments of oil terminals and service stations to seeking, negotiating and obtaining Licences to store petrol under the DSA Regs and Licences to discharge wastewaters under the Water Pollution Act mainly for car wash operations. I also supplied specialist project supervision of Hot Works in Hazard Zones. When vapour recovery was mandated in Ireland through EU directive, it presented an obvious opportunity for me to offer independent verification services.

Nowadays I am increasingly involved in seeking licences to discharge wastewaters for food service waste streams from shop deli operations along with car wash operations, risk assessments - mainly of service stations but sometimes at oil depots and oil terminals - under ATEX requirements where the DSA Regs are considered somewhat redundant, all along with my vapour recovery compliance service.

With Vapour Recovery Stage 1B, I conduct a dynamic test during the petrol delivery interval - as opposed to a static test during the interval between petrol deliveries - as it’s primarily at this petrol delivery interval that the Stage 1B VR System actually functions. During my “Vapouright” test I firstly want to confirm all petrol tank vents connected into the VR system and all other tanks vents left free are venting. There are increasing concerns with the current trend of underground tank storage being switched from petrol to diesel to cater for increased diesel sales – or so called dieselization. I want to see good vapour balancing across the vapour return path, good vapour tightness of the VR system, no tank

roof lid leaks, no evidence of blow backs or forced petrol vapour emissions from fill openings, no potential for flow backs or forced petrol liquid outflows from fill openings, no VRL adaptor leaks, satisfactory PVV operation, etc. I also check a number of items by visual inspection e.g. all required VR warning signs in place, VRL cap maintained locked, etc. If a site passes my “Vapouright” test I then issue a VR Compliance Report to the relevant local authority as an independent verifier or approved VR Assessor.

In Ireland, you have 5 independent verifiers of vapour recovery installations. Can you explain how that came about and how you ended up as one of the 5 suppliers that can examine and issue certificates of compliance to satisfy not only the operator but for the local enforcing authorities?

Irish legislation sets out the regulation of Stage 1B VR Systems at Petrol Filling Stations and indeed the compliance of petrol tankers in Stage 1A & 1B VR operations along these lines. The regulation of Stage 2 VR Systems is provided for along roughly similar lines but not enforced to date because such systems are only being introduced and the first test intervals are still awaited.

I applied to become an independent verifier. I had to meet certain criteria e.g. I was expected to have relevant experience in the oil industry, to be 5yrs time locked from having worked for any industry operators, to have the means to conduct a thorough VR test, to be a chartered engineer and to carry adequate professional indemnity insurance to meet regulatory requirements. I satisfied these qualifications and sought my approvals – basically that was it.

Is there much variance across Ireland, possibly from the more urban areas and do you also receive requests beyond Ireland such as Northern Ireland, the UK mainland and Europe?

Can I answer this question in reverse geographical order.

Regarding Europe, I have not worked here except to represent the National Standards Association

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with low level petrol vent manifolds – both perhaps with 40mm vents as opposed to 50mm vents – both perhaps with pre VR compliant overfill protection devices containing shut off valves in tank internal drop tubes.

These sites will be more inclined to show blow backs of petrol vapours from the fill openings because of the possibility of backpressure build-up and the presence of the older type or pre VR compliant overfill assemblies, and have more potential for flow backs of petrol liquid from the fill openings, again because of the possibility of backpressure build-up and reduced height difference between the tank manlids and the fill openings. The later arises if the PVV is required to provide emergency venting relief at 35mb and back pressures develop so that contained pressure might rise towards 50mb or even more in worst case scenarios. On VR Systems with contained pressures less than 50mb blow back concerns may be resolved by using weight loaded PVV’s with reduced weights say providing emergency venting relief at 15mb – 20mb to accommodate some degree of backpressure, where there’s a need to calculate the reduced weights here depending on the difference between the free venting pressure and the 35mb standard. I can certify VR Compliance here but I can’t readily certify VR Compliance of VR Systems with contained pressures exceeding 50mb with potential for flow back, unless I ignore the Blue Book and agree special assessment criteria with other relevant parties.

In the cities and larger towns it’s more likely that the fire department will administer the VR Regs as opposed to the Environment Dept. but in other areas it could be vice versa. I pay particular attention to older sites outside urban areas where blow back or potential for flow back are more probable concerns.

What would you say is the biggest fault with VR Installations in Ireland?

The most common fault that I encounter is that the VR system is not vapour tight. This will result primarily because of blow back from a petrol fill cap opening or from a

vapour leak path in a petrol tank lid manhole chamber.

Both of these faults are potential safety hazards as they are uncontrolled fugitive petrol vapour emissions and can lead to explosive atmospheres arising around the petrol fill opening or in the petrol tank manlid chamber.

What do you think will happen when (and if) legislative changes take place in Ireland as we know the APEA/EI’s publication known as the “Blue Book” is recognised as the lead and definitive guidance in the industry?

When and if are the big words here. There doesn’t seem to be anything happening fast here in spite of a few false dawns. It’s still wait and see.

I expect the relevance of the Blue Book under any new law will be no different to the situation at present where it is relied upon by interested parties to agree good practices. This is not to be taken as the last word on any relationship of the Blue Book to any new law in Ireland on petrol filling station. I think the possible tie-in here is one for legal drafters to consider, lawyers to clarify.

Would you say the installation standards and techniques have improved over the years?

For sure, in no small way thanks to the role of the APEA across the industry.

OK, turning now to less technical matters, what do you like about our industry? What drives your passion and enthusiasm?

Well I can’t get away from technical matters. The range of new technologies and the speed at which these appear and then become the state of the art always amazes me. This is why I enjoy going to shows and seminars such as the APEA Live to see the latest gismos and systems and trying to spot the emerging trends coming down the track. There are always new ideas around, new solutions to problems, new people to get to know.

If canopies and car washes were ground breaking when I started out look at what has happened since then including in no particular order of merit - total containment, leak

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of Ireland at CEN meetings where among many other things I have learned that there is widespread use of orifice plates along with PVV’s or instead of PVV’s, mostly on Stage1B + Stage 2 VR System set ups.

Either way I am amazed that such provisions are permitted by European Regulators as they simply facilitate vapour emissions to prevent pressure build-ups in the interval between deliveries when Stage 2 VR is the dominant factor. So it seems petrol vapours can be recovered at the petrol dispenser nozzle at very considerable expense to Service Station operators and then allowed to free vent to atmosphere via these orifice plates.

This to my mind is absurd and I could not assess any site with such arrangement i.e. a 10mm diameter hole, as vapour recovery compliant and therefore can’t see myself ever working in Europe as long as orifice plates are accepted which I’m sure leaves my European friends very disappointed!

Regarding the UK mainland, I have worked in the UK mainland but only on road tankers coming off the production line, where I conducted a range of static-only pressure, vacuum, and vapour tightness tests before these units were delivered to Ireland.

Regarding Northern Ireland, the situation in “the North” is quite different to that in “the South”. There seems to be no preference for dynamic VR Tests in “the North”, nor any requirement for VR Tests to be conducted by an independent assessor more similar, as I understand it, to the situation in the UK mainland. So I don’t work in “the North”.

Regarding the Republic of Ireland and variances in VR compliance within “the South”, there are some marked examples.

Older sites are more prevalent outside of the cities and larger towns. The most serious concern with an older site is when the manlids of storage tanks are not installed to at least 600mm below ground, complete with underground fill points, complete with high level petrol vent manifolds, or not installed to approximately 750mm below ground, complete with underground fill points, complete

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detection systems, remote wetstock control, temperature correction, unmanned sites, driver controlled deliveries, modular dispensers, pressure pumping, conveyor washes, even “dog washes” not to mention Vapour Recovery Stage 1, Stage 2...and the next big thing?…Stage 3 maybe!

I think our industry is a challenging but rewarding place to work in whether as a marketer, contractor, consultant, or regulator where there’s always something new happening to keep the juices flowing in every sense!

For every positive there is a negative so what annoys you?

Bureaucracy often annoys me where prescription takes precedent over common sense but you know what they say - you can’t beat city hall!

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When you are not plying your craft, what do you like to do to relax?

I am a member of my local GAA club, Clanna Gael Fontenoy. The

GAA is an Irish sports and cultural association fostering and promoting traditional Irish sports. These include primarily the regally rugged game of Gaelic football and the superbly skilful game of hurling and of course also the main sport in Ireland … having “the craic”. The main tournaments are the All Ireland series in football and hurling which are in the end knock out competitions between counties leading to finals in September every year with the winning county teams crowned as All Ireland Champions. I support my local club teams and County Dublin teams and have to always support my old birth County Antrim. I am a bit of “blazer” now but still serve on committees to help keep my club ticking over. We have a strong juvenile section which we hope will feed into the improving adult teams. There is a great social side to the GAA so I try to get down to the clubhouse at weekends for matches and maybe stick around afterwards to talk balls and for “the craic”. I attend meetings during the week and maybe stick around

Operating 'best in class' Service Stations by Embracing Innovation and Process Improvements

By Richard Cox, Managing Director The Kay Group

On behalf of The Kay Group, I was excited but personally very nervous about presenting a paper on “Operating 'best in class' service stations by embracing innovation and process improvements”.

I have never presented in public before, which was challenging enough for me, but as the task loomed nearer, I became nervous knowing that many of my industry colleagues would relentlessly rib me if the Company was unsuccessful in its entry for Service Station of the Year, particularly bearing in mind the title of my paper. Fortunately, I was 48

afterwards again to talk balls and for “the craic” – I think you get the gist of what I’m on about here!

Would you like to add anything before I close this interview?

Maybe I can just say best wishes to Louise Morgan on her reign as 1st lady chair of the APEA, and also to our very own Killian Tallon in his new role as 1st Irish vice chair and to wish the APEA Irish Branch well…..going forward!

Michael, it has been a pleasure as always. I am not quite sure when I am next over but when I know I must call you so we can have a ‘Smithwicks’ or two as I just love your place.

We have a new lighter brew Guinness in Ireland now to compliment the original black stuff for real men. Its target market is the ladies and it’s sort of … well lighter – there are about 50 shades of creamy black in it as it settles. So beware of having “the craic” with any fair colleens that you see drinking it – I’ll let you go with the old GAA catch cry…..”Lovely hurling” Brian!.

delighted that the Company was announced as winner, supporting one aspect of the paper “best in class”.

Our winning site at Formby is a true example of “embracing innovation and process improvements”. It was a service station that had been closed for nearly two years and was destined for out of industry use.

To open this site, many obstacles had to be overturned. A previous planning application had been

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refused upon appeal; there was a large area of Japanese knotweed to dispose of; there were ongoing land contamination issues despite a high level clean-up operation by the previous owners to commercial use standards; protected trees - one of which was strategically placed in the proposed new building - and a strongly fought petition against the proposed site by our neighbours to the council and to the media.

Through a very determined and proactive approach to the challenges this set us - including presentations and consultations with our neighbours and legislators - we secured planning approval for a bright and inviting 24 hour service station including a state of the art convenience building/store with parking to the front, an in store retailing partner, Greggs, and a four bay jet washing facility to satisfy today’s customer expectations.

I am pleased to announce that the site is already attaining the business criteria set to all its activities and the Company is taking its neighbour relations seriously in order to minimise noise and disruption. To that end we have had minimal reaction from them since we opened and now, unsurprisingly, most are valued customers.

For those who know little about The Kay Group (UK) LTD, it is Blackburn based and a multiple industry award winning Company for design, innovation and, most importantly, for customer service.

Now one of the North West’s leading petrol retailers, all of its locations are 24hr high volume petrol retail outlets with state of the art convenience stores and car valeting serving over 140,000 customers a week. Shell, Texaco and Spar are our principle supplying 50

partners along with in store retailing partners Subway, Greggs and Costa Express.

To attract customers and retain them, we staff to meet customer needs.

There is site management in attendance seven days a week and we double staff during Fridays and Saturdays nights with an open door policy.

The Company employs over two hundred people.

They are paramount to the business and, accordingly, the company continues to invest in its employees by offering them the opportunity to gain NVQ qualifications in retail/customer service and specialist personal licences.

I now highlight the basis of my paper with some supporting examples which I hope and trust is of interest to you.

The Kay Group’s strength and cost effective developments come from being loyal to local suppliers where possible.

It also has strong relationships with local contractors which have contributed to its progress of ongoing joint partnerships and the resulting benefits of working together.

For new developments, such benefits start right at the beginning with the architects’ and structural engineers’ drawings. The Company does take a value engineering approach to design out cost where it can. This is achieved by including our principle contractors at this very early design stage to assist with the process. It also looks beyond the build and design in the specification to reduce ongoing maintenance costs and to achieve a build that will operate without any excessive repair or replacement costs for at least ten years.

For example, cross over drainage.

If you fit a standard lighter duty D400 cross over drain it is likely you will be repairing some areas of it within five years. However, upgrading to a heavier duty F900 might add a material cost of 10% more but would cost no more to install. It would,

however, be unlikely to need attention for ten years. It also comes with the added benefit of no more frustrating bolts for drainage contractors to leave loose after they have cleaned the channels!

Another benefit is to design the tank farm and off set fills close to the pumps to reduce the need for lengthy pipe runs.

Here is a question for you. Why do some builds specify the plastering of internal shop walls and paint them?

I have not developed a shop for years which, once the shop fit out is complete with the cladding and bulkheads fitted, has any wall left exposed for the customer to see plastered and painted. I just build the basic shell to meet the building and fire regulation requirements and the theatre is then in the customer environment and shop fitting - not plastered and painted walls.

Similarly, back of house. Fare faced brickwork is fine. It does not look unsightly once painted and is certainly no uglier than gouges out of the plaster once stock has been shifted about in trolleys within months of opening.

So, with working relationships formed over the years, the Company now has a group of contractors selected for their expertise and ability to work together on our builds which offer solutions to issues rather than looking for “extras”. By working closely together there is a mutual understanding of what we are looking to achieve and at what cost. The teams are always looking to drive costs down during the development by not being afraid to challenge each other on ways to do things, using practical cost effective solutions and, when unforeseen over runs come into play, looking at ways of making other savings throughout the build whilst not compromising the quality of the end product.

They understand each others requirements and are able to resolve issues quickly without compromising the build time or the budget. These efficiencies have a great value to them. It is not always about accepting the lowest price at tender. However, if any of the team is reading this please take that as a compliment, NOT as an invitation to increase prices on the next project!!!

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Firstly, wet stock management and control With the rising cost of product from 80p a litre recently to now over £1.10 a litre, net of VAT, there is an approximately 40% increase in cash loss for every litre lost along with forever decreasing fuel margins.

Wet losses, if not constantly monitored and receiving special attention, would be financially damaging to the Company.

At the time of presenting, eleven months into our financial year, the product loss was running at 0.19%, costing the business £130,000 which, surprisingly within the industry, is a good result!

Through innovation and process improvements my 2013 target and expectation is a zero loss.

How do we achieve the current results?

Secondly, and more challenging, is how are we going to achieve a zero loss?

• Formby was opened with ATC pumps • An evaluation was carried out over a four year historical period between terminal temperatures and our tanks • Over the last four years, three years gave an average terminal temperature of less than 15 degrees • Our in tank average over the last 3 years was 13.2 degrees Just as a note (and not that I am obsessed about “HOT” terminal supplies), I am astounded that sometimes the temperatures being recorded at point of delivery from the refinery is hotter than I run my bath!!!! Yes, we do reconcile each delivery temperature - it helps when analysing any swings in results, especially diesel.

From this site-by-site analysis in conjunction with capital cost and returns, a further 5 sites have been fitted with ATC and all in operation from November 2012.

• All meters are checked by inhouse personnel as well as contractors • Evaluation by hose takes place and all hoses viable to cut back are made • Through 2011 to 2012, seven of the eleven sites are now fitted with Stage 2 Vapour Recovery

• There seems to be a marginal difference from standard accounting at 15 degrees.

However, each 1 degree is worth 65,000 litres to us if the whole estate was fitted with ATC

• Eco meters were also fitted to six of the above mentioned Stage 2 sites

• The graph above shows how one of our sites is expected to perform over a year with ATC fitted. You

can see gains in the winter months when product temperatures are expected to be below 15 degrees and losses in the summer months when expected to be above 15 degrees.

It should be noted the majority of the benefit will come from unleaded petrol.

The capital cost is marginally extra for ATC on a new pump. Some but not all pumps can be retrofitted.

Our remaining four will be revisited if we achieve the expected benefits.

From our evaluations and investment, the Company is expecting a return on investment in just over a year on the retrofits and between 2 and 4 years on the re pumps. The rate of return variation is on how many pumps each site has and the volume throughput.

Finally, our LPG supplier has fitted ATC to our highest volume site as a test. It is too early to satisfactorily report on but the first months result is surprisingly good.

Secondly, and lastly for those losing the will to read on, rain water harvesting. This provides a real marketing benefit as well as an ecological feel good statement and a planning give.

Our last two developments have had a 30,000 litre harvesting tank installed to take the rainwater is from the canopy and the 4,000 sq ft building. This water used for all purposes e x c e p t drinking water.

We operate thirty six, buy time jet washes on eleven sites.

The latest two mentioned above have four and five wash bays.

Historically, with buy time, it was virtually impossible to promote without direct financial penalties.

Now we are advertising 80% extra free and 4 and a half minutes for £1, with very satisfying and surprising results. It is a promotional cost we can afford as the water is virtually free. Even on tried and trusted sites

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Through this process and contractor innovation to support our own, (particularly as I act as the clerk of works (first saving I would promote)), I would break the savings down as to ten percent on materials and a further fifteen percent coming from a realistic and pragmatic approach to specifications, reiterating for the avoidance of doubt, without compromising the quality of the build nor the customer environment Turning to running and managing the day-to-day business, I will extract two examples of embracing innovation and process improvements.

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we have seen a 30% uplift in a year of very difficult car w a s h i n g conditions and competition.

For the future, the Company still has many areas of improvements to investigate and I welcome our suppliers’ input on innovation, but it

Ask The Experts

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In the case of LPG Storage Vessels to be installed on a petrol filling station is there a standard that is applied and what guidance exists that should be followed?

Information on the design standards and fittings required on LPG storage vessels are given in UKLPG Code of Practice 1 part 1.

The pressure vessel needs to have been designed to a recognised Standard, usually PD5500, and be complete with suitable fittings.

I have heard of the term “Separation Distance” with regard to a new LPG Above Ground Installation on a licensed Service Station. What is this term and is it relevant to the amount of Autogas to be stored?

We had a similar question for September 2012, to which our reply was:

Separation distances apply to all LPG vessels and major related components. The table in the Blue Book is a summary and more details can be found in the UKLPG Codes of Practice.

A separation distance should not be confused with “hazardous places” as defined by the HAC (Hazardous Area Classification) assessment required by DSEAR. The Codes of Practice state “Separation distances are intended to protect the LPG facilities from the immediate radiation effects of fires involving other facilities as well as to minimise the risk of escaping LPG being ignited before it has dispersed or diluted”.

Separation distances may be reduced by using fire (radiation) walls on a maximum of two sides of a vessel and/or by the provision of

has to be affordable and with a warning. Too many offer financial returns and benefits without taking into consideration our already in place savings and controls. One supplier presented a saving of more than we actually used as it was based on assumptions, old kit and poor operations.

Our aim is simple. Any changes or investment made must improve the asset value or the business financially.

greater fire protection. More details are given in the Codes.

For underground and mounded vessels there is still a requirement for separation distances but due to the inherent protection of the type of installation then the distances are less than for an above ground vessel of equivalent size.

Separation distances depend on the size of the vessel. For the most common sizes found on forecourts the distances are as shown in the table below.

It is not usually economical to install underground vessels with a capacity of less than 4 tonnes. So for underground vessels in the capacity range of 4 to 10 tonnes the separation distances are the same as those for >1.1 to 4 tonnes above ground vessels.

Richard Wigfull John Wigfull & Co Ltd

From CoP 1 for above ground vessels

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I would appreciate some guidance on the industry standards around disposing of water which may contain ethanol. I appreciate there would be an issue discharging this water into the interceptor as it may find its way in to the drainage system. There appears to be no clear guidance on this issue and the major oil companies have differing opinions. Is there any APEA guidance on the issue?

The Blue Book provides guidance on drainage and oil water separators and when this was being written we discussed at length with the Environment Agency about current fuel and what goes through the separator. The spillages we expect to see are small amounts during dispensing or larger spillages during road tanker delivery. It was generally accepted that petrol with low ethanol content up to 8% would be okay going through a separator providing this went to the foul sewer where the effluent would be treated. The ethanol content is quite small and would pass through the separator with water.

The EA were not too keen on separators discharging to surface water or groundwater through soaka-ways, where contaminated water can contact groundwater.

Where E85 was to be stored and dispensed then we did agree a different approach and this guidance note can be found as a free download on the APEA website at www.apea.org.uk.

Service companies such as yours are likely to be called in to pump out water from tanks which may contain small amounts of ethanol which will readily mix with the water. The most satisfactory way of dealing with this is to treat it as hazardous waste and dispose of it to a licensed site; that way you can ensure that ethanol will not end up going through the separator. Guidance from the EA is available as a free download and their Pollution Prevention Guidance provides advice about petrol stations. I believe that if problems are found in groundwater then the EA may ask for more restrictions in future. I hope this is of some assistance Jamie Thompson Chairman Technical Committee 54

electrical When inspecting equipment on a petrol station in a hazardous area I notice that the equipment shows amongst other codes an EEx symbol. What does this mean and what other information is recorded on this plate?

Electrical equipment for use in potentially explosive atmospheres (BS EN 60079 Standard Series) where Gas and/or Combustible Dust may be present, or equipment that is installed in a Non Hazardous area that “Contributes” to the safety of a piece of electrical equipment in a hazardous area must be certified by a notified body and as such manufacturers are obliged to fit a data plate Indicating essential

Equipment could of course have the IEC Ex certification marking detailed as well indicating it complies with the global International Electrotechnical Commission.

It is down to the equipment specifier’s or system designers to ensure equipment is suitable for the environment it is going to be used in.

The installer and subsequent inspectors and maintainers will ensure this continues to be the case and equipment is suitable for the environment.

I have detailed a “Typical” Data plate below and what some of the markings mean.

information relating to the safe installation and application of the equipment. The manufacturer could of course indicate other information that they think is appropriate.

The applicable European Directive is Directive 94/9/EC (also known as ‘ATEX 95’ or ‘the ATEX Equipment Directive’) It was intended to remove barriers to trade by ensuring the quality of the equipment. I’m sure most readers of the Bulletin will be familiar with the ATEX 95 Marking which is a Hexagon with the letters Ex enclosed within.

Equipment marked with this symbol indicates that the equipment complies with the ATEX directive and will also have a ‘CE’ mark . A “CE” mark on its own does not mean the product is suitable for Hazardous atmospheres. Of course prior to this directive older standards and markings were used and I would hope competent inspectors and equipment maintainers are familiar with these and how these can continued to be safely used.

We now have similar data plates on Non Electrical equipment (BS EN 13463 Standard Series).

Gareth Bourhill Gareth Bourhill Consulting I am a new petroleum inspector and wish to know what types of pipework are acceptable in this country. Do they have to meet any particular specification or standard and on installing, should I attend the site and witness any testing before the lines are covered over?

In the past the underground pipe the industry used was almost always galvanised steel but this proved to be a major problem when widespread corrosion of the pipe caused leaks to occur resulting in both environmental and safety problems. It was not something just restricted to the UK but is a worldwide problem.

The preferred underground pipe for the industry is now non metallic pipe which is resistant to petroleum and its many additives. The best way to ensure that the pipe is suitable is to make sure it is certified to the European Standard BS EN 14125 Thermoplastic and flexible metal pipe work for underground installation at petrol filling stations

APEA tel/fax 0845 603 5507 www.apea.org.uk

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ARTICLES which ensures the pipe is tested against the fuels currently used in the market.

In some cases it may be necessary to install double wall pipe and for guidance you should look at the appropriate chapter in the Blue Book.

Underground pipe should be tested before covering it up to ensure that any joints are sound and do not leak. I would always advise an inspector to attend site during construction and witness testing. The pipe should be installed so that only the pipe not subject to corrosion is installed underground; steel pipe may be installed above ground.

Jamie Thompson Chairman Technical Committee What is the function of the pressure and vacuum valve (the P/V Valve) in a Stage 1b Vapour Recovery Installation?

Are there particular settings on

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this valve and can Tanker deliveries take place when this valve is operating?

The reason that pressure vacuum valves are fitted to underground petrol installations is to comply with environmental requirements to restrict the amount of petrol vapour, also known as volatile organic compounds (VOC’s), which could be discharged into the atmosphere previously during the delivery of petrol.

Petrol stations in Europe are now required by law to restrict the amount of vapour they discharge to atmospheres and that is why they fit such valves.

The pressure vacuum valve is normally (but not always) placed at the top of the vent pipe and its installation is designed to restrict the amount of vapour that can escape through

the vent pipe during delivery of fuel into the storage tank. Their use also restricts vapour emissions when a stage 2 system is fitted when vapour pressure can build up in the storage tank.

The valve is normally closed holding vapour in the storage tank system and will only open when there is a pressure rise thus

preventing a dangerous pressure build up to occur. The pressure side of the valve normally opens to relieve pressure when the pressure in the vent pipes reaches 35mbar.

During delivery of fuel this encourages the vapour displaced during delivery to return to the road tanker via the vapour return pipe.

The system operates correctly if the valve remains closed during the delivery of petrol; if there is a discharge of vapour you will normally hear the valve “chattering” and this should be reported and investigated.

Once fuel is dispensed into vehicles from the tank, air has to replace the fuel lost from the system and the vacuum valve then operates at a vacuum of around 2mbar allowing replacement air into the system.

The P&V valve must now be fitted with a flame arrestor which meets BS EN ISO16852, this is a legal requirement.

Jamie Thompson Chairman Technical Committee

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Type of plan

Site Location Plan 1:250 scale Elevations and Sections to scale Site Layout Plan to scale Installation Plan to scale

Drainage Plan to scale

Hazardous Area Classification Plan

Shop Floor Layout Plan to scale

Tanker Tracking Diagram Specifications LPG Installation details to scale

Reason

To assess location and surrounding risks

To check canopy clearance heights, appreciate extent of free ventilation

To check boundary distances and understand the key components of the overall installation To show tank farm location, pipework runs, depths and route of these, pump islands

To show gullies for surface and foul water runs, separators, drainage runs around the dispensing area, entrances and exit of the site

This should be in colour showing the hazardous area around fill points, dispensers, drainage that may capture product, vent stacks and tanker stands

Showing the layout of retail, office and storage areas within the building, authorising positions for fuel and goods, vision over the forecourt Showing the tanker route on and off the site and tanker stand including that for LPG deliveries

For tanks, pipework, dispensers, drainage etc Storage vessels, pipework, dispensers, tanker stand

Effectively Dealing with an Environmental Incident: A Legal Perspective

By Joanne Holbrook - Solicitor Berrymans Lace Mawer LLP

The risk potential for an environmental incident at a service station is high, as is the probability that some risks will materialise. So high in fact that some examples, such as minor spills on site are considered by most to be an inevitable consequence of operating.

Although incidents vary

considerably in severity and degree, the most effective means of dealing with any incident is to establish good environmental management and response systems.

These systems allow an operator (and other associated parties such as consultants, tenants etc) to act promptly. This not only addresses the physical impact, for example by containing and cleaning up released fuel, but also has a significant influence on any potential legal action that may

follow.

To be effective (both in a practical and legal sense) incident responses should adopt the ‘PARK’ approach.

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As a newly appointed petroleum officer, I have recently received a call from a firm of architects asking me what plans I would like for a brand new development. What sort of plans should I ask for?

Part of a petroleum officer’s role is to assess, appraise and comment on new proposals and the construction of a brand new filling station certainly falls into that category unless only diesel or a non licensable fuel is to be kept.

Currently in the UK the site will require a petroleum licence under Section 1 of the Petroleum (Consolidation) Act 1928 (1929 in Northern Ireland) which imposes a legal duty by way of conditions to maintain the site and inform the licensing authority of any works that materially effect the licensing conditions, so what I am about to say is equally applicable to a major refurbishment of an existing site. The APEA/EI publication known as the “Blue Book” should always be applied where further guidance can be found.

The full range of plans can be listed as shown in the table.

Though not exhaustive it illustrates the extent of detail that should be looked at before approving any project of this size.

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• • • •

Plan Act Record Keep control

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Plan Specific accident and pollution management plans should be developed which anticipate the nature of possible incidents on site; the harm they could cause; how the chances of them occurring can be reduced; and what should be done in the event that they happen.

Plans should consider a range of risk scenarios. For example, lost fuels can pollute land or watercourses, can damage property, ecology and ecosystems and can present harmful vapour inhalation or ignition risks. The containment or equipment failures which lead to fuel losses can arise either by general wear and tear, operational errors, accidental damage or acts of vandalism.

Plans should also consider those factors which can significantly contribute to incidents; for example, severe weather conditions like heavy rainfall, snow and localised flooding can cause drainage systems and interceptors to fail and can damage other equipment. This can result in environmental damage from the mobilisation of pollutants which would otherwise have been contained on site.

Developing and periodically adapting accident and pollution management plans need not be time consuming, costly or difficult. In the bad weather example, a simple variation to existing maintenance and inspection procedures to increase the frequency of checks during those periods could avoid an incident or alternatively could identify the cause of an incident early, allowing the extent of any damage to be significantly reduced.

Also, businesses that operate across multiple sites often have generic risk assessments, plans and procedures which they apply to all of their sites. This is an acceptable starting point but there will be a considerable amount of information and knowledge which is unique to a site and which impact on events and the response actions that may be needed. This too should be collated and should be easily 58

accessible.

Drainage routes, service plans, tank locations, tank manufacturing and maintenance information and the locations of connecting pipe networks (including any unused, decommissioned tanks or networks) will differ between sites; as will the potential for cross-contamination of substances, the location of isolation switches, the pollution control points and the location of response equipment. Each site will have different vulnerable receptors such as nearby watercourses, areas of unmade ground, different land uses and neighbouring different classifications of highway that adjoin the forecourt. Any standardised procedures (and subsequent mitigation action) should be modified where these known local features require more stringent protections.

Considering risks and then mitigating the level of any damage plays an important part in any legal action.

Civil claims arise in a number of circumstances and can be bought by a range of different parties. They include commercial disputes with distributors, suppliers or professional service providers; allegations of harm or injury to members of the public or employees; or allegations of property damage (either third party land, buildings, equipment, vehicles or other tangible property).

When assessing a civil claim, the level of knowledge of the parties, the foreseeability of an event, the measures taken to both prevent it and to mitigate any damage are all considered when establishing whether there is liability and if so, in determining the value of any settlement or damages awarded by the court.

This is where the importance of plans, procedures and records, take on a critical evidential function. The greater the evidence from the outset, the quicker, cheaper and easier the legal process becomes.

Spurious claims can be discredited and legitimate ones better assessed.

In a regulatory investigation, having evidence that risks were considered and that reasonable steps taken to reduce them and/or to mitigate their effects also carries some weight. Even offences such as

those relating to water pollution, which carry strict liability (meaning that liability exists without the need for a party to be at fault), the ability to demonstrate that any risks or failings on site were not deliberate i.e. that risks were not ignored and action was not delayed in order to save costs (referred to by the court as a ‘motivation for profit’) is a consideration which can often reduce the levels of fines for such offences imposed by the court.

Although any regulatory investigation has to be proportionate, it is not uncommon for an investigation to uncover technical breaches of statutory obligations and for enforcement action for those breaches to then follow; the failure to properly store and dispose of used spill kits is a common example.

Regulator investigation is not the only thing which generates liability issues that are secondary to the incident itself. The response actions themselves can present new risks or can environmental exacerbate existing ones. Pollution caused by wastewater when water drenching or foam flooding in response to fire risks is another common example. The importance and necessity of removing the fire risk is unquestionable. However factored into response plans should be a method by which the wastewater or foam can be channelled, contained and then correctly disposed of, thereby reducing the risks of regulatory and/or civil legal action for any damage from the wastewater release. It will also help you to avoid the cost of expensive off-site remediation, (including any cost recovery by regulators forced to take emergency action, whether pursued under statute or civil law) which is unlikely to be recoverable under most standard insurance policies.

Act However well planned, actions need to be well executed if they are to be successful in mitigating risks.

This means that response plans should be communicated to all levels of staff and to all other parties who may need that information when performing their services and

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obligations on site. It is particularly important that staff of forecourts, operating outside of peak hours, are aware of the immediate actions and notifications required following an incident.

Relevant notifications are not just those to the regulator. Notifications may also be needed within the company and to third parties such as tenants, landlords, consultants, suppliers, insurers, legal advisers and importantly the public. Staff need to have clear instructions and understand the level of authority they have (or rather do not have) to act and communicate with others.

Inexperienced staff can have lengthy and speculative discussions with regulators or members of the public which although well intended can be damaging and difficult to redact.

The same principles apply to consultants and contractors employed to respond to the incident. The full scope of their work, the ownership and status of the reports/data that they produce and their communications on behalf of the company should all be agreed in advance. There needs to be a clear understanding about what is expected, on what terms works will be performed and who is ultimately responsible for the work and workers on site.

A lot can be forgotten in the aftermath of an incident, if plans are already in place and information is accessible then that valuable time can be spent on responding to the incident, preserving any evidence, taking photographs and witness statements and conducting any internal investigations.

This is also the time to consider taking early legal advice, rather than waiting for a regulator to arrive or a civil claim to be threatened. It allows you to take control and familiarise yourself with the legal process, the powers and limitations of regulators and the protections that you may be able to invoke.

Record It may seem self-explanatory but having written records of assessments, policies, procedures, when they are reviewed or amended and when they are communicated to staff are crucial 60

to the outcome of a legal action. So too are inspection/maintenance records and historic information about both the site and business.

The costs of civil claims can quickly escalate while historic (and electronic) information is identified and traced to ascertain earlier works, or intentions between parties on liability for contamination risks.

Record keeping is usually met with hostility, being viewed as an administrative burden. Because of this many businesses with a good culture have difficulty in evidencing good practices when it matters.

Good housekeeping also means keeping matters under review to ensure that they always adequately reflect the business operations on site. Reviews should be done periodically and following any significant changes whether prompted by legislation, postincident measures or changes to the business structure or commercial agreements.

Keep Control Depending on the nature, duration and severity of the incident the affected site should be appropriately secured with controlled access, appropriate health and safety protections and notices in place. This means that action can be taken while minimising any further risks.

Also, having previously stressed the need for parties to be well informed; in the aftermath of an incident, communications need to be properly controlled, particularly as the public perception of risks can soon escalate to panic. The answer is not necessarily to shut down and maintain silence but to have a managed approach in what is being said on behalf of the company. Working relationships still need to be preserved and some parties may have a commercial interest in knowing events and may be able to assist. If unsure of your position, seek legal advice.

A specified point of contact (SPOC) is the best way to manage communications so that one person has responsibility for all liaison. Staff can then be told to direct all communications through the SPOC, who can keep a record of what information is disclosed, by whom

and to what parties. A SPOC is important in regulator investigations.

Witness statements give useful background information to regulators but if seeking to rely on responses or documentation of the company’s, that information must be correctly obtained and given by people with the capacity to bind the company. Companies can and should seek legal advice when cooperating with regulators and are strongly advised not to attend interviews under caution without the or benefit of legal advice representation as there may be alternative options available.

Certain information such as postincident investigation reports may be capable of being protected from the disclosure requirements in a legal action. The area is complex but early legal input before this documentation is produced can be extremely beneficial by ensuring that all opportunities to protect information are maximised. Also internal circulation of information needs to be carefully managed, particularly if it implicates certain individuals.

It is worth noting that regulators also need to control their own communications and avoid making any allegations or inferences to the public before concluding their investigation.

The consequences of not dealing with an incident can include criminal fines, imprisonment of individual directors, civil penalties, payment of damages and other expenditures, business disruption or closure or commercial restrictions on operations. Effectively dealing with an environmental incident is about protecting the company’s position by a combination of good management systems that are well implemented and by taking advantage of early legal advice before a claim is issued or a regulator arrives on site. Any subsequent legal action may be mitigated or avoided and you never know, it may be you who has the action against someone else.

Joanne can be contacted at: Email: joanne.holbrook@blm-law.com Tel: 0161 236 2002

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By Jamie Thompson

I spent much of my life as a regulator controlling service stations and trying to prevent leaks, spills and accidents at filling stations. A big part of this work in the past was trying to determine when single wall tanks would leak and although I have looked at many systems which were tried and tested no one system was able to inform us when a tank wall was breached - before product entered the ground.

I have had far too much experience of failures of systems and the consequences of leaking installations to have great faith in some forms of so called leak detection.

While the loss of product from a tank or pipes from service stations has always been of concern that concern today is higher than ever before.

We should remember: • The risk of fire and explosion is still with us from any leak • The consequences of a leak to the environment is considered, by all those involved, as of much higher concern now with the subsequent claims against pollution from leaking product. This can be catastrophic to a business and also damaging to reputations as well as harmful to the environment • The very high cost of fuel also means the monetary loss should be of concern to businesses as a 10,000 litre loss = £13,500

Europe The biggest change in the UK came in 1990, in London, when we

decided that no more single wall tanks would be installed and double wall tanks with leak detection would only be permitted.

The UK were behind other European countries such as Germany who had already made such a decision many years before to have all their underground tanks double walled with leak detection.

It was somewhat ironic that after the reunification of Germany, one half of the country had double wall the other did not.

While each country made decisions on the regulations for underground tanks it is clear that in Europe the EU had formulated a number of Directives (Laws) which have to be made mandatory in each EU country. These covered mainly Environmental issues such as prevention of pollution, protection of groundwater and drinking water, and the disposal of waste water.

One also covered the storage and use of dangerous substances.

These actions by the EU now mean that all European Countries have been encouraged by the EU Directives to comply with these laws and the industry has moved forward quickly and embraced the European Standards for double wall tanks, and double wall pipes and of course leak detection. These standards are all designed to support the various Directives.

This standard EN 13160 -1 to 7 provided industry with several options:

already single wall installations with no interstitial space then the options would be to install leak detection and classes 4, 5 & 6 are options • EN13160-7 even covers the lining of existing single wall tanks so that a class 1 leak detection can be fitted to old installations What do the classes mean?

They are designed to guide the designer or owner of the service station as to the effectiveness of the system they are installing. Class 1 being the highest and class 6 being the lowest.

With underground piping systems there are alternative leak detection systems, according to the risk presented, from a Class 3 system to a Class 1 system in higher risk areas.

Class 1 Pressure or Vacuum The pressure system operates by putting a positive pressure in the interstitial space between the two walls of the double wall tank. This pressure will be above any external pressures from groundwater or the fuel itself. Any breach of the two walls will be detected as a loss of pressure indicating a leak and an alarm sounded enabling the owner to remove product from the tank before there is a threat to the environment.

The vacuum system operates in a similar way but draws a vacuum in the interstitial space with any breach of the skins allowing air, water or fuel to enter the interstitial space, this rise of pressure indicating a leak which will sound an alarm.

• For those who chose the modern safe route of installing double wall tanks and pipes then they should install Class 1 system which in fact is leak prevention • Class 2 and 3 are also only able to be used on double wall systems • For

those

who

had

APEA tel/fax 0845 603 5507 www.apea.org.uk

Class 1 Leak Detection system

61

ARTICLES

Class 1 Leak Detection The Ultimate Deterrent

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Class 2 Liquid systems This system has the interstitial space filled with a liquid, this liquid is a glycol water mix which fills up the interstitial space, and the installation requires a header tank which is installed high enough to provide the pressure to the interstitial space. Any breach of the walls will cause the liquid level to drop and the resultant loss of the liquid is detected in the header tank and an alarm is sounded.

ARTICLES

Class 3 Liquid, level or discriminating sensors This system uses sensors, level sensors, discriminating sensors or vapour sensors and they are used in double wall installations and the positioning of the sensors is critical to their effectiveness.

They are normally placed at the lowest point in a system and once a leak is detected an alarm will sound.

Class 4 Tank Gauge Leak Detection Systems These systems are divided into category A providing a leak detection system to tank and pipes connected to the tank.

Category A systems measure what is sold through the dispensers against what goes out of the tank according to the tank gauge and within limits will sound a warning to the operator that there is a discrepancy which should be investigated.

Category B is for leak detection of tanks only and is capable of detecting a leak below the liquid level while the tank is not dispensing fuel.

Note:-Fuel will always enter the environment if a leak is found when operating on a single wall system.

62

Class 5 Monitoring Wells This class is shortly to be removed from the new standard when it is published next year but it is the installation of a monitoring well around a tank or pipe or service station with sensors (according to class 3) installed in the wells which will detect a leak of product from the installation. The positioning, depth and construction of the well is an important factor to its effectiveness as a leak detector.

Note:-Fuel will always enter the environment if a leak is found when operating on a single wall system.

Global Differences It is clear around the world there are differing requirements; a few countries I have visited have no regulations at all but rely on the people storing or using the product to provide a standard acceptable to the industry. Most have some regulations and it will also depend upon the enforcement of those regulations as to how effective they are.

One country I visited still uses single wall steel tanks with a glass fibre coating process and they claim to have had reasonable success with their tanks, but all single wall systems have the uncertainty that you do not know when the tank will leak.

Last month I was told of one of these tanks which had been leaking for several months with the clean-up costs being very high and subsequently providing bad publicity.

The oil company concerned are now asking about specifications for double wall tanks with leak detection.

The USA, one of the world’s largest users of motor fuel, has gradually changed over the years to double wall systems in their EPA regulations and, although many forms of leak detection such as SIR were accepted by regulators, the move towards more effective leak prevention systems is seen by those who operate stations as a positive way forward. The US has many double wall GRP tanks with the trend towards the leak detection system being similar to the European

Class 2 system but using brine instead of glycol.

The US regulators I talk to are also coming around to the preference of having both walls of the tank being under test during the whole of its life as a good move.

European Preference is changing The systems installed in tanks for many years in Europe was the class 2 liquid system, but there has been a move in recent years by environmentalists and responsible oil companies to the Class 1 system.

This is for a variety of reasons: • In environmentally sensitive areas even the leak detection fluid is considered a hazard to the groundwater • When leaks occur the detection fluid in the interstice has to be disposed of • Economy - the cost of leak detection fluid adds to the cost of tank manufacture • Operators are taking environmental issues seriously and are changing to the more environmentally friendly systems Pressure and vacuum leak detection systems for double wall tanks and pipes have been operating in Europe for over 35 years. There are over 700,000 such installations in use monitoring tank and pipes. They detect a small number of leaks each a year around 1% of those being monitored. 75% of those leaking have a leak in the outer wall and 25% in the inner wall.

Class 1 Pressure System This is a system for new tanks and pipes.

The leaks detected allow enough time to take action without the risk of contamination. There is no record of contamination of a double skin tank with Class 1 leak detection fitted.

The pressure system creates a fixed operational pressure in the interstice. The alarm pressure and the operational pressure are always higher than the pressure (weight) of the stored fuel or the groundwater in its deepest point. In the event of a leak the compressed air prevents

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the stored product or groundwater entering the interstitial space.

The compressed air in the interstice is dried by a dry filter preventing condensation forming in the interstitial space and the pump operates and adjusts for variations in temperature and atmospheric pressure.

• It is important to remember the two walls of the tank are under test the whole of the working life of the tank • If there is a hole in the inner skin then the pressure in the interstice backed up by the small compressor in the leak detector has been known to keep product from entering the interstice enabling the tank to be emptied and the breach repaired.

single wall steel pipe, where corrosion played a major part.

Although in recent years the move towards non-metallic systems has measurably improved the situation the industry has also moved towards installing more pressurised pumping systems where the submersible pump pushes the fuel to the dispenser. In such systems a leak can be very damaging with up to 200 litres per minute flowing from a breach.

This incident in 1987 was caused from the leak of petrol from a pressurised system and resulted in an explosion which killed the manager and injured several customers.

ARTICLES

Class 1 Vacuum System Class 1 Vacuum systems are normally installed where tank linings or jackets are used and the pressures generated by a pressure system are not a suitable choice.

The general requirements and test methods for leak protecting linings and jackets are covered in Part 7 of EN 13160.

With the vacuum system the operational vacuum in the interstice is below atmospheric pressure and is adjusted against the pressure of the stored product. The vacuum is high enough to suck the stored fuel/air or groundwater into the interstitial space and up to the liquid stop valve. The alarm then sounds providing the operator with enough time to remove the stored product.

With a vacuum system: • The pump where provided is ATEX approved as flammable vapour may pass through it.

• The two walls of the tank or pipe are under test the whole of the working life of the tank • Any leak from the inner wall below liquid level will result in the interstice being filled with the stored product.

Pipe Systems The history of leaks from service stations has shown that in the past the majority of leaks occurred in 64

The use of “double wall” or “secondary containment” technology is of course good engineering practice. These are sometimes a legal requirement in countries and at other times are subjected to a risk assessment.

Publications and codes such as the APEA/EI publication “Design

Construction Modification, Maintenance and Decommissioning of Filling Stations” recommends double wall pipe with leak detection on pressure systems. The classes of leak detection recommended in the publication depends on the risk from a class 3 system in lower risks to a class 1 system in high risk situations.

Such systems are in use in London in high risk areas close to Underground railway stations and have been successfully operated for a number of years, providing the travelling public with good protection.

The one note of caution I should add is that the leak detection systems should not be fitted and forgotten.

They need, like all good security systems, some maintenance, servicing and checking to ensure they are in working order.

Personnel should receive some training on how the systems operate and what to do if the alarm sounds.

The alarms should be in a position where someone responsible can hear them; they should not be silenced without action!

The Ultimate Deterrent My advice to designers and operators of service stations is to specify the best method of providing secure leak detection, and thus meet ethical environmental concerns by ensuring the double wall tank is under a pressure test the whole of its working life, and that is by installing a Class 1 pressure system.

It is reassuring to have the knowledge that there have been no recorded losses of fuel in Europe from a double wall underground tank which has class 1 leak detection system in around 50 years of experience in this field.

Source Technology Corner PetrolPlaza.

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Technical information from the UKLPG

Further to our notes in 2011 we would like to remind readers of the free downloads available on the UKLPG website

at www.uklpg.org/advice-and-information/useful-information/. User Information Sheets are where specific guidance is required quickly and can be summarised on a few sheets of A4. The current list is displayed below, whilst

not all relate to autogas there are topics that all relate to LPG.

Ref

Summary

UIS002

Bulk LPG installations for grain dryers

UIS003 UIS004 UIS005 UIS006 UIS007 UIS008 UIS009 UIS010 UIS011 UIS012 UIS013 UIS014 UIS015 UIS016 UIS017 UIS018 UIS019 UIS020 UIS021 UIS022 UIS023 UIS024 UIS025 UIS026 UIS027 UIS028

Mobile bottled gas heaters and condensation The use of LPG cylinders indoors LPG patio heaters – safe use.

LPG hose and tubing for use with vapour offtake cylinders

Checklist for the assessment of safety standards at operator owned sites

Final connections to caravans or mobile homes connected to LPG central storage and distribution systems for multiple consumers.

Electrical installations associated with bulk LPG installation.

Selection and operation of Coriolis meters for proving LPG metering equipment by volume.

Separation distances between LPG cylinders and tanks and domestic oil tanks Fire and gas safety guidance for farmers using LPG caravans Work on vehicle LPG fuel tanks Work on vehicle LPG fuel tanks

ARTICLES

UIS001

Gas soundness testing of LPG service pipework, installation pipework and appliances in holiday homes, caravans and motor homes.

Inspection and maintenance of LPG pipework at commercial and industrial premises.

Inspection and maintenance of LPG pipework at commercial and industrial premises.

Use of clips to secure vapour phase LPG hose and tubing to BS3212 and EN1763 to end fittings Tips on keeping cosy this winter

Emptying, purging and scrapping vehicle LPG tanks Camping safely

Conversion factors for metered estate use Owning your own tank

Home information packs/energy performance certificates

Preparation, installation, inspection, testing and maintenance of rubber hoses up to and including 76mm internal diameter in accordance with BS EN 1762.

LPG (pipework) Installation Record and Documentation

Filling of user owned, portable refillable LPG cylinders at autogas refuelling sites Cold burns

Safe Use Of Propane And Butane Cylinders, Appliances and Equipment APEA tel/fax 0845 603 5507 www.apea.org.uk

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Southern

BRANCHES

The Southern Branch’s Autumn meeting was held on Thursday 25th October at the Compass Inn, Tomarton; it commenced at 10.30 a.m. with the Branch Chairman, Paul Reyner, welcoming 22 members and 6 guests.

The first speaker of the day was Jacque Williams of Berrys on MIDAS (misfuel identification and avoidance system).

Misfuels can include tankers delivering the wrong fuel into a bulk storage tank; these costly mistakes have many knock-on effects.

Over 100 misfuels are reported each year; misfuels can involve fuel uplifts and fuel pump downtime.

If misfuels are not identified, customer’s vehicles are affected, with associated costs and bad publicity for the retailer.

Financial incentives may then be required to regain customer support.

MIDAS has been designed to eliminate misfuels; each unit is programmed to discriminate between fuels, and contains a positive shut-off valve.

The units have also been designed with a minimal increase to the fill point pipework height, to prevent delivery hoses being lifted more than usual.

The top of the MIDAS unit has three coloured LEDs, to signify: • Correct (green)

fuel

being

offloaded

• Incorrect fuel being offloaded (red) • Maintenance issue (orange) Pipework installers are given a hand held Datatec unit, to programme the units and enter site information.

This product has recently become ATEX accredited.

Jacque then gave a physical demonstration on an actual unit, which showed the correct fuel was being dropped, which in turn, opened the shut-off valve to accept the delivery.

If a misfuel is made, which can be up to 50/60 litres, this fuel can be accepted into the fuel tank by using the system’s override key.

The misfuel incident information is 66

Jacque Williams of Berrys

then stored in the system for further analysis.

Another manual method of removing the wrong fuel in the MIDAS system is to have a quick release coupling fitted to the fill pipe, which can then be attached to a syphoning off hose.

The MIDAS system’s battery power will be monitored, but is estimated to last approx. 5-7 years, with 2 deliveries per day.

The second presentation of the day was by Mike Taylor of Refuels Ltd., and Andy Powdrill of the AA on Vehicle Misfuelling and AA Fuel Assist.

Incidents of customers filling their cars with wrong fuel are classed as self-inflicted, and warranties do not apply.

Critical engine parts from misfuelled vehicles were checked for correct operation, and found to be fully operational.

The AA realised that their employees providing a roadside/forecourt fuel retrieval service must be trained to a higher standard than regular motor vehicle technicians.

There are approx. 150,000 known misfuelling incidents in the UK per annum, with over 7.5 million litres of contaminated fuel generated.

The AA believe these are due to: • Significant growth vehicles sales

in

diesel

• Diesel technology more difficult to distinguish between petrol and diesel engines

• Vehicles being used by different people The AA fuel assist business has been operating since 2006 and was initially set up on a trial basis with a five year plan.

Misfuelling statistics have been kept from this time.

The health, safety and environmental aspects of providing a fuel assist service were set, and end compliance ensured.

Initially, there were 7 fuel assist vans, there are now 65 fuel technicians throughout the UK; each technician undergoes a 6 week training programme on health and safety aspects only, with stage reviews.

In 2011, 44,000 misfuels were rectified with a 95% success rate, with an average retrieval time of 45 minutes.

All AA fuel technicians are ADR trained and qualified, and undertake SPA courses; they are also audited and mystery shopped to ensure compliance with SSOW. They operate at all times to the HSWA, MHSWR, DSEAR, COSHH and HAZWASTE, and wear flame retardant and anti-static clothing at all times.

Mike Taylor of Refuels Ltd. advised that they have 20 locations in the UK where the misfuel is taken to, to be treated and reclaimed. Recovery rate is 99.96%.

The third presentation of the day was by Geoff Wheeler and Bart Onysek of Eurotank on an update on tank technology/safe working

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meeting on 17th October.

The review is as a result of the Lofstedt recommendation requesting feedback from PELG. A paper has been presented to say licensing must go, and what to replace it with.

The outcome was that licensing will be retained, but possibly with a new title, and some areas would be clarified/simplified, especially around non-workplace storage and containers.

Discussions also took place on:

Bart Onysek of Eurotank

BRANCHES

procedures in entering fuel tanks.

Geoff advised that problems are being encountered in the UK with GRP tank lining systems breaking down, and tank corrosion as a result of storing biofuels, and to fully investigate these issues, tank entry must be made.

Bart then demonstrated their tank entry equipment in the hotel car park, and explained in detail their entry processes.

Eurotank also use intrinsically safe cameras in the fuel tanks; images of which can be accessed remotely by their Health and Safety Manager.

Tank lining systems are UV cured instead of chemical curing, to further prevent emissions, and for better control.

Tank surfaces are cleaned with high pressure jet washing instead of sand blasting for better ease of removal and disposal.

Lunch was then served in the orangery, after which a general networking session took place.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Graham Grant of Scarlets Fuel could not be present to deliver his fuel remediation presentation, so the last speaker of the day was Ray Blake of the London Fire Brigade on an enforcer’s update and the HSE decisions on future legislation.

Ray advised that the PAPS partnerships are going well, with a new partnership set up with Avis.

A bill is going through Parliament in late 2013 on inspections.

There are now 572 businesses with partnerships with 93 companies.

BRDOs next initiative is for PAPS to 68

grow; 433 local authorities will be contacted regarding this.

RGF Foam – the HSE promise to issue a safety bulletin on their website soon.

PELG have agreed to do a PETEL expanding on guidance in the blue book.

•

Containers

•

Under age issues

•

ACOPs

The way forward regulations is to:

on

revised

• Introduce a set of amending regulations that updates and replaces existing legislation • Rationalise, clarify and simplify issues, including licensing and enforcement Revised regulations will come into force on 1st October 2014.

Paul Reyner closed the meeting by thanking all of the speakers, and all members for their continued support, and advised that the next branch meeting will include the AGM, and is planned to take place at the end of February 2013.

Sue Meadowcroft Branch Secretary

Yorkshire & Humberside

Ray Blake

PELG were asked to put a rep. into the downstream/distribution for tanker driver’s accreditation scheme (similar to the SPA passport) for other fuel deliveries including marines and refineries.

A review of ACOPs will then be done.

PETELs and red guide issued by PELG will be loaded onto the website soon.

Ray then ran through the HSE consolidation of petroleum legislation conclusions, from a

Yorkshire and Humberside meeting and AGM 16/10/2012.

AGM The Yorkshire and Humberside Autumn branch meeting took place at the Global MSI premises in Doncaster.

Andy Kennedy welcomed 11 members to the AGM for the branch. All committee positions were up for election with the following people elected.

Branch Representative Craig Brocklehurst Craig.Brocklehurst@vianetfs.com

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Treasurer David Parker d.parker1@btconnect.com Secretary Terry Guthrie tguthrie@syfire.gov.uk Chair Andy Kennedy akennedy@combinedgas.com The following people were reelected as committee members: Mario Cieply Ahmed Mulla Lawrie Smail

Branch Meeting The first presentation was from David Holmes from Fibrelite. David is the Technical Director at Fibrelite and well placed to describe the benefits of their chamber lid replacement process.

This technical innovation is to cut

Cutting out frame

BRANCHES

The Treasurer (Dave Parker) presented the financial report on the branch funds to the meeting which were then approved.

The branch members present were then presented with very nice APEA logo branch polo shirts that the committee had arranged to be produced. These can also be purchased in grey or pale blue by branch members for £5.00 each.

Please place any orders with David Parker.

A good discussion then took place within the members regarding what future venues would be preferred for future meetings. It was agreed that the branch should try where possible to use meeting venues where there was an additional attraction (such as the MSI factory tour) to encourage new members to attend. A couple of the fire brigade members also volunteered their establishments for future venues which is very welcome.

The next branch meeting date was agreed and will be booked for Wednesday the 15th of May. Can all Yorkshire and Humberside APEA branch members please book this date in their diary?

Andy closed the AGM and welcomed the speakers to the branch meeting.

New frame inserted

out non-water tight or poorly fitting round chamber covers and replace them with new Fibrelite covers.

David described how they have designed a jig to saw out the old lid in situ. The jig then creates a rebate in the concrete to seat a frame for the new lid. The frame is then secured with epoxy resin ready to accept the new lid. It really is a clever and simple idea put into operation by the Fibrelite team.

The benefits of replacing failed chamber lids with this method are;

• Less disruption to site as less plant is required • Less waste to be disposed off site.

• Less noise neighbours

pollution

for

site

• Cost savings for the site operator • Proven system used by many major oil companies

• Less down time for site operators.

Hours to replace each lid, rather than days

Fibrelite advise they are currently replacing covers globally for their customers using this method. The common reasons for replacing covers are:

• Up to three lids can be replaced a day by one team

• Deformed composite and nylon covers

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• Increased training for staff • Increased on site safety audits

New lid installed

• Low quality fibreglass covers that are deflecting • Jammed covers • Steel covers due to weight and theft

BRANCHES

• Raised covers All present were impressed by the simple idea to quickly replace chamber lids that has been taken up and developed by Fibrelite and the quality of the product.

The next presentation was given

by Collette Sellers, SHE manager from our hosts for the day, Global MSI. Collette showed the assembled group pictures of how the canopy industry worked several years ago.

As you can imagine, we all cringed at how things used to be done.

Several old pictures of people working at height without any or little safety equipment seemed to be the order of the day. Collette then showed us what improvements Global MSI had made in both the design of their canopies and

methods of working. Both of these have greatly reduced the hours required to work at height on a new canopy and risks to staff doing maintenance work.

Some of the improvements include: • Erecting canopy structures on the ground • Designing canopies to be lifted as one structure and pre sheeted • Handrails built in to canopies

Eliminating the Risk

Building Canopies in the air Time erectors are working at height

36 hours

Building on the ground and performing 1 lift

Post new spigot

10 minutes

Zero

Underlining from scissorlift not included in this figure

70

• Proper personnel securing points • Improved equipment

access

• Improved access points on canopies • New safety method statements

Although Global MSI’s work will always retain elements of working at height, it was refreshing to see what actions they were taking to eliminate or reduce the risks.

Collette and her team obviously are passionate about the safety of their workforce and this was very evident to all at the meeting.

Hopefully the cutbacks in the UK’s Health and Safety inspectors won’t allow the less scrupulous contractors to revert to the old ways of working and take us back to the bad old days.

After a very nice buffet lunch, the members were invited on a factory tour of the Global MSI manufacturing plant. The first thing that struck you was the sheer size of the buildings. Walking through we were able to see the cutting and forming of steel girders and sheet ready to be assembled on site into the canopies we are all familiar with.

The tour was very interesting seeing the high tech equipment employed including the computer control plasma cutting and finishing of the steel parts.

We then moved on to the shot blasting and painting areas. One thing in common here, everything is big… The tour ended outside at the loading bay where the members watched the loading of canopies ready to go to their new homes. All present thoroughly enjoyed their day and would like to thank David Holmes, Collette Sellers and all at Global MSI for their time and hospitality.

Andy Kennedy Branch Chairman

Eastern

The year 2012 is historical for the celebration of HM Diamond Jubilee and for the year London hosted the Olympics and Paralympics. For those who attended and for the many who watched it on TV it was indeed an enjoyable time to

APEA tel/fax 0845 603 5507 www.apea.org.uk

remember.

The Eastern Branch events committee met earlier in the year and decided to commemorate these noteworthy events by holding their Christmas winter meeting, reflecting on the 2012 Olympics, aboard HMS Belfast. The theme of the event was fuel related with the aim to gain an insight into the refuelling infrastructure which supported the event, and to hear from some of those involved, of the technical challenges and lessons learned from undertaking such a large logistic project. Also having regard for the complexities of London.

HMS Belfast was launched in March 1938 and served throughout the Second World War, playing a leading role in the Arctic Convoys, the Battle of the North Cape and

the Normandy Landings. She later supported UN forces in Korea and remained in service until 1965. In 1971 she was saved for the nation as a unique reminder of Britain's Naval

APEA tel/fax 0845 603 5507 www.apea.org.uk

Heritage. She is the only surviving example of the great fleets of big gun armoured warships built for the Royal Navy in the first half of the twentieth century. It's a marvellous museum and if you haven't been, make a date. Certainly those who attended seemed to have much fun looking around.

The event was well attended with nearly eighty delegates present. We were also delighted to see several members from other branches.

Anton Martiniussen opened the proceedings and welcomed the guests.

The formalities were completed with a reminder of the competition act. It was a pleasure having Louise Morgan of Petrocom with us. She is the new APEA Chairwoman (itself historical being the first woman to occupy this post) and spoke in support of the Branches and the important link they provide for the members as well as a platform for information and training. One of her wishes is to increase the membership and she would welcome ideas and suggestions from members. Please contact her directly. We wish her a very enjoyable tenure and look forward to seeing her achieve her ambitions.

Our speakers on the day were; Jean Fincken, Deputy Head of Petroleum, London Fire Brigade. Her topic: Regulator updates. Amongst other things she mentioned the future movement of the Red Guide and PETELS which have been reworded and are now with the Energy Institute for republication.

Jamie Thompson, updated members on current standards work

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BRANCHES

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Brian Humm

BRANCHES Soeren Powell-Holse and Anton Martiniussen

Alan Cartwright

i.e. TC265 WG8, underground tanks.

EN13160 leak detection, EN13616 Electrical and Road Tankers.

EN13012 has been rewritten and republished. EN13352 no change.

EN14125 – amendments have been 72

done and final draft should be available fairly shortly.

Phil Lambeth of BP Global Alliance spoke about BP’s Olympics showcase, biofuels and their hi-tech showcase message during the

Olympics and the technical issues of the temporary fuel installation. By special dispensation we were also honoured by being shown for the first time BP's new fuel video. Soren Powell-Holse the Sales Director of Wayne talked about “Fuelling the Future” and how Wayne partnered with BP to ensure the fuel installations kept the games going with their new Wayne Helix fuel dispensers.

Brian Humm, London Fire Brigade Head of Petroleum (Enforcement) spoke about the trials and tribulations of refuelling facilities during the event as well as giving a brief insight into some of the challenges and bureaucracy faced. Brian also added a humorous touch to the subject.

Alan Cartwright of the Port of London Authority spoke on the subject of the EU Fuels Directive – Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel Fuel with FAME and the Implications for the UK Maritime and Inland Waters Sectors.

Some 65% of all traffic on UK inland waterways are on the Thames.

Inland waterways for the purpose of this directive were defined, as waterways not connected directly to the sea. The EU Fuels Directive required EU countries to introduce regulations to extend the ultra-low sulphur fuel specifications from road use to non-road mobile machinery, including ships, boats and other vessels operating in “inland waters”.

The maritime and inland waterways sectors are learning to live with ultralow sulphur fuels (which, in themselves have now been proven to require very few adjustments) but have yet to be exposed to the full effects of FAME in marine fuels. The presentation set out the background, the impacts that caused such concern and how the effects have been mitigated, both in regulation and in practice. Alan set out some solutions to challenges which remain and alerted delegates to the dangers of FAME in marine fuels, effects and risks of which have yet to be fully experienced.”

We thank all the speakers for giving of their busy time and to their organisations too. Also the exhibitors Elaflex, E&S Environmental, Franklin Fueling, Hytek, Petrocom and Eurotank.

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North West

The next meeting is on 21st March 2012 at Anson Motor Museum, Poynton, buffet lunch will be £20.00 per head.

Clive Drake Branch Secretary

Scotland

Nothing to report.

Ireland

Nothing to report.

Midlands

Nothing to report.

North East

Nothing to report.

Branch Representative and Secretary Contact Details

BRANCHES

Eastern Alex Boudry - Rep Franklin Fueling Systems Limited Olympus Close Whitehouse Industrial Estate Ipswich, Suffolk IP1 5LN Tel: +44 (0)1473 243 322/+44 (0) 7825 798 953 email: Boudry@franklinfueling.com Anton Martiniussen - Sec ELAFLEX Ltd Riverside House, Hoddesdon Herts EN11 0PA Tel: 01992 452 950 Mob: 07831 595620 email: elaflex@aol.com North East Mike Silmon - Rep and Sec W O Silmon Ltd Industry Road, Heaton Newcastle upon Tyne Tyne & Wear NE6 5XB Tel: 0191 224 0777 Fax: 0191 224 0707 email: associationtreasurer@apea.org.uk Midlands Rob Tunnicliff - Rep 37 Victoria Park Road Tunstall Stoke on Trent ST6 6DX Tel: 07909 141232 email: rob.tunnicliff@stoke.gov.uk 74

Graham Adcock - Sec Adcock Associates Falstaff House Birmingham Road Stratford upon Avon CV37 0AA Tel: 01789 414202 Fax: 01789 267741 email: enquiries@adcockassociates.co.uk North West Louise Morgan - Rep Petrocom Ltd Wash Farm (Office) Rainford Road, Bickerstaffe Lancashire L39 0HG Tel: +44 (0) 845 678 0790 Fax: +44 (0) 845 678 7820 Mobile: +44 (0) 7789 744281 email: louisemorgan@petrocom.co.uk Clive Drake - Sec LIS (North Western) Ltd 322 Haydock Lane Haydock Lane Industrial Estate St Helens Merseyside WA11 9UY Tel: 01942 722244 Mobile: 07834 540636 Fax: 01942 722266 email: clive@lisgroup.co.uk www.lisnorthwestern.co.uk Scotland Ian Hillier - Rep 26 Melrose Avenue Balgonie Estate Paisley PA2 9JA Tel: 01505 352004 email: i.hillier@ntlworld.com Paul Devine - Sec South Lanarkshire Council Consumer and Trading Standards North Stand, Cadzow Avenue Hamilton ML3 0LU Tel: 01698 476170 Fax: 01698 476180 Mobile: 07795 090903 email: paul.devine@southlanarkshire.gov.uk Southern Philip Monger - Rep Petrol Retailers Association Meadowside West EndSherbourne St John Basingstoke, Hants RG24 9LE Tel: 01256 850164 Fax: 01256 851273 email: phil.psac@gmail.com

Sue Meadowcroft - Sec 1 Rock Cottage South Cornelly

Bridgend CF33 4RN Tel: 07780 475050 email:

sue.meadowcroft@mssr.co.uk Ireland

Killian Tallon - Rep Topaz Energy Ltd Topaz House

Beech Hill, Clonskeagh Dublin 4, Ireland

Tel: + 353 1202 8705

email: killian.tallon@topazenergy.ie Ronnie McArdle - Sec

McArdle Doyle Limited

Unit A8, Santry Business Park

Swords Road

Santry, Dublin 9 Ireland

Tel: 00353 1 8423404

Fax: 00353 1 8423416

email: mail@mcardle-doyle.ie Yorkshire & Humberside

Craig Brocklehurst - Rep Brulines Fuel Solutions

The Former Post Office

Station Road, Sowerby Bridge

Halifax

West Yorkshire HX6 3AA Tel: 07703336264 email:

Craig.brocklehurst@vianetfs.com Terry Guthrie - Sec

South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue

Comannd HQ

197 Eyre Street

Sheffield

South Yorkshire S1 3F6 Tel: 0114 253 2383

email: tguthrie@syfire.gov.uk

APEA tel/fax 0845 603 5507 www.apea.org.uk

Bulletin Mar 2013 76pp_Bulletin Mar 2013 76pp.qxp 04/03/2013 08:48 Page 75

3 Day Combined Petrol Filling Stations – Construction, Audit and Inspection Course 19 - 21 March 25 - 27 June 17 - 19 Sept

Solihull Glasgow Manchester Airport

5 March 5 June 4 Sept

Solihull Glasgow Manchester Airport

13 March 13 June 18 Sept

Solihull Glasgow Manchester Airport

15 March 17 June 17 Sept

Solihull Glasgow Manchester Airport

Electrical Installations - An Awareness

Forecourt LPG Installations

Wetstock Management

Course Fees (all plus vat) 3 day course with accommodation 3 day, day delegate rate 1 day course More information and booking details at APEA Training Team

Explosives and Fireworks 10 Sept 24 Sept

Luton Manchester Airport

12 March 20 June 5 Sept

Solihull Glasgow Manchester Airport

4 March 10 June 9 Sept

Solihull Glasgow Manchester Airport

11 Mar

Warwickshire

DSEAR

Petrol Filling Stations - Enforcement Procedures An Awareness

Petroleum Officer’s Workshop (1 day)

Petrol Filling Stations - Vapour Recovery Installations 18 March 12 Sept

APEA Member £1020.00 £810.00 £260.00 www.apea.org.uk

Non member £1120.00 £910.00 £310.00

Brian Baker Consultant

Jamie Thompson Independent Consultant Bob Conlin Director, Fairbanks Environmental

Solihull Ipswich

Gareth Bourhill Gareth Bourhill Consulting

Kim Bennett Senior Environmental Health Officer Milton Keynes Council

Brian Humm Head of Petroleum, LFEPA

Richard Wigfull Consulting Engineer J. Wigfull & Co Ltd

Joe Maerz Operational Manager Rural & Public Protection Team Essex Trading Standards

Louise Morgan Managing Director, Petrocom

John Dallimore, Consulting Engineer John Dallimore & Partners

Jean Fincken Petroleum Inspector, LFEPA

TRAINING

2013 Training Course Dates

Courses will be designed around the (3rd edition) Blue Book Guidance for the Design, Construction, Modification, Maintenance and Decommissioning of Filling Stations (June 2011).

You can purchase a copy directly from the Publications page of the APEA website at www.apea.org.uk, log on to the website first to benefit from the APEA member discount.

APEA members can purchase a hard copy at the discounted rate of £70 (non member rate £140).

A PDF download from the APEA web site www.apea.org.uk can be purchased with a licence for individual use only by members for £70.00 plus vat or by non members for £140.00 plus vat.

It is strongly recommended that attendees have access to this document during courses.

All courses can be booked online at www.apea.org.uk on the ‘Training’ page.

Bespoke courses are available where discounts can be applied by provision of the venue.

For details of this and any other training enquiry, please contact: Jane Mardell - APEA Business Manager, email: admin@apea.org.uk, Tel: + 44 (0) 845 603 5507 or Brian Baker Tel: +44 (0) 07798 765958 email: bakerb4@sky.com APEA tel/fax 0845 603 5507 www.apea.org.uk

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