Business Managers Report

Sir,

Just a note about the article in the news section of the March 2003 Bulletin regarding the 'bloody fuel' who tried to set fire to petrol at the Safeway Petrol Station, West North Street, Aberdeen.

At the time of the incident, the emergency procedures were followed, the staff were properly trained and the matter was reported to the Petroleum Officer, as required by the conditions of the petroleum licence, this made what could have been a very serious incident, fairly minor.

Surely the HSC should realise that this example of how the current system of Petroleum Licensing protects the public (even bloody fuels) and employees, and one which would be very difficult to replace to ensure the same level of protection.

Graham Shand Senior Authorised Officer Aberdeen City Council Trading Standards Service Environment & Infrastructure Tel 01224 523732. Fax 01224 645786. www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/ab erdeen/

Re: BP bespoke training course 18-19th March 03 (letter to APEATraining Chairman)

Dear Brian

On behalf of the Alliance I would like to register our appreciation for the abovementioned course, which our UK operations team attended last week. The feedback from our team was very positive and there was particular mention of the excellent delivery and presentations from Paul Craven and yourself.

I will be in touch shortly to discuss possible future courses including an Audit and Inspection course for members of our maintenance team. One of the most important benefits for us is to see things from an authority/inspectors perspective and to reinforce the message of viewing these as a support where ever possible.

Many thanks again and I look forward to additional training projects with APEA in the near future.

Martin Rackley Global Alliance HSSE Manager (Europe)

Re: Electrical testing/licence renewal for petrol filling stations

Sir,

Can somebody help please!!

I am the manager of a "hazardous area" electrical company who is going mad!

We have 'been involved with petrol filling installations for over 20 years and I am now told (by NICEIC) that none of my Engineers are competent to carry out an electrical work or testing oil petrol Filling stations unless they have the qualification, Comp 'Ex EX07 and EX08 - which incidentally is a £700 course, presently only available at one training centre! Until we have these qualifications we are unable to purchase NICEIC certificates to carry out our electrical tests.

This brings us onto the certificates now prescribed for petrol filling stations, the NICEIC now has 3 no. certificates for "visual", "close" and "detailed" reports. Whilst I am the first to agree that obviously certification should be brought into line with the new industry standards Blue book) it seems that nobody has taken into consideration the Trading Standards requirements for licence renewal. The real world is as most of us know that the expertise possessed generally by Enforcing officers is not sufficient to deal with these new 6 no. page documents and the reality is now that anything goes; (I apologise to the Enforcing Officers that have this expertise).

Throughout the country at present all types of paperwork are being accepted for licence renewal given the flux state caused by all of the above confusion, indeed I have been informed that my, local petrol retailers association have informed their members to ignore the new certificate requesting "full documentation and drawings" (a massive expense on a private existing site) because the Trading Standards "aren't bothered" and lets face it these sites and indeed the majority of oil company owned sites will only carry out the minimum certification (and consequently expenditure!) to enable continued trading whatever the NICEIC's viewpoint.

Needless to say I have not over contemplated the likely effect D.S.E.A.R. will have on the above. How can our industry get itself into this state, does anybody talk to each other, surely we should have had the new system i.e. certificates, training, qualifications all sorted out and ready to go before we left HSG41- Can we not produce “simple-summary" sheets for the Trading Standards to deal with the new certification?

P Williams Worcester Electrical Services

UK:Supermarket chain Tesco takes 25pc stake in growing green fuel firm

Supermarket giant Tesco has bought a 25pc stake in a fuel business which makes diesel using an ingredient found in salad dressings and margarine.

The £1.9m deal will see Tesco extend its current supply agreement with Greenergy Fuels, a subsidiary of environmentally focused fuel supplier Greenergy International. Tesco's arrangement with Greenergy is not exclusive and the fuel company will continue to supply other clients, including Tesco's rival supermarket Sainsbury's.

Tesco commercial and trading director John Gildersleeve yesterday said: "This deal demonstrates our support for Greenergy Fuel's innovative work to develop environmentally friendly fuels. This relationship also collectively gives us the ability to improve our supply chain and bring long-term benefits to all."

News of the agreement follows a request for outside investment made by Greenergy's chairman Andrew Owens. In October Mr Owens said the company needed some form of institutional investment, perhaps in the shape of an equity partner, to help it sustain growth rates. Greenergy expects its turnover to reach £250m this year, roughly double last year's.

The GlobalDiesel product Greenergy supplies to garage forecourts is made from a blend of ultra-low sulphur diesel and processed rapeseed oil - which can be found in some soap products as well as margarine spreads and salad dressings. Greenergy claims Global- Diesel is significantly less damaging to the environment than regular ultra-low sulphur diesel (ULSD), which currently makes up most of the UK's diesel sales.

Greenergy claims Global- Diesel results in more economic fuel consumption, a guaranteed 5pc reduction in carbon dioxide emissions and up to 28pc fewer particulate emissions than regular diesel. UK: Driver unaccounted for as exploding petrol tanker shuts motorway

A petrol tanker has exploded after plunging off a motorway and down an embankment. Police believe the vehicle hit a broken down car on the M56 near Runcorn, Cheshire, at 8pm and careered off the motorway towards the River Weaver. A Cheshire police spokeswoman said: "Witnesses reported seeing an explosion and flames." The driver of the petrol tanker has not been accounted for, she said. The driver of the broken down car was not in his vehicle at the time and was not injured. The spokeswoman said the motorway was closed in both directions between junctions 12 and 14.

UK: London Feb 24, 2003. Greenpeace activists shut Esso Station.

Greenpeace activists, some dressed as tigers, have forced the closure of Esso's British headquarters and 100 petrol stations as a protest against what it calls the firm's "fuelling of the Iraq crisis".

Esso is a unit of U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil. About 300 Greenpeace volunteers begun targeting stations from dawn on Monday, removing power switches that controlled pumps and locking pump nozzles together, a spokesman for the lobby group told Reuters. "We've found a way of stopping power to the pumps. We've just shut down out 100th garage and shut down their headquarters," the spokesman said. "This is in response to their fuelling of the Iraq crisis and their funding of groups in Washington that are aggressively advocating an attack on Iraq as well as their stance on global warming."

Esso spokesman David Eglinton confirmed the station closures and said staff were being told to stay away from the company's headquarters in Leatherhead, southern England, because activists had got onto the glass roof and were posing a safety problem. But he firmly denied the lobby group's claims that the company was pushing for military action in Iraq. "People have every right to express their views but it is ludicrous to suggest that ExxonMobil is in any way encouraging a potential war on Iraq," he said. "The Iraq situation is entirely a matter for governments, not companies to resolves." He said the company had not been asked, nor made inquiries or had any discussions with U.S. President George W. Bush's administration or any other government regarding military action to gain access to Iraqi oil.

Greenpeace said the protest would continue throughout the day but no more of the company's 1,300 British petrol stations would be targeted. Instead, members would be packaging up the power switches they had removed from 100 stations around the country and posting them to ExxonMobil executives in Texas.

UK: East Anglia March 1 2003. Oil Spill in Chelmsford

More than 4000 litres of waste oil has been removed from a spill at a stream in East Anglia, preventing potentially "devastating" consequences.

The Environment Agency has been dealing with the severe loss in Baddow Mead Brook in Chelmsford. Agency officers were notified by members of the public and managed to prevent the oil reaching the River Chelmer.

The pollution incident is believed to have been caused by a large tanker illegally discharging waste oil to a water sewer or highway drain, possibly to avoid disposal costs, or from a commercial company which

News "lost" the oil.

The clean-up operation after the incident last Wednesday prevented harm to wildlife or members of the public, who could have been effected by any polluted water which is abstracted for drinking at

Maldon.

Steve Bewers, Environment

Agency manager, said the source of the leak was still unknown. "We have employed contractors and removed 4000 litres of waste oil, the quantities of which are so high it must have been caused by a large spillage from a tank or bulk container. "It is much larger than anything that could have come from a domestic property. The specialist clean-up operation has already run into thousands of pounds, which ultimately will be paid by the local taxpayers."

An agency spokeswoman added it was not clear who owned the land where the spill occurred, although it is not thought the source of the problem. She said: "We are of the view that the spillage is so large that whoever is responsible must be fully aware of the problem."

The agency issued an appeal to members of the public to contact them if they know of any recent spillages or have seen any tanker vehicles acting suspiciously in the area of the incident.

Anyone with any information about the pollution incidents should contact the agency's 24-hour hotline on 0800 80 70 60.

UK: Woman killed helper in freak accident on petrol station

A man was crushed to death in a freak accident at a supermarket petrol station, an inquest heard.

Bristol Coroner's Court was told that Mulke Rehan Mirza, was killed trying to help a woman put air in her tyres at the Tesco garage in Eastville. Yesterday's inquest was told that the driver, 59-year-old Kawther Abdalla, had accelerated into Mr Mirza when he was crouched in front of her car. The car crushed him against a wall, causing fatal head injuries. Mr Mirza, a married 30-year-old taxi driver from Hathway Walk, Easton, was pronounced dead on arrival at Bristol Royal Infirmary.

Mrs Abdalla apologised to the court and said that she sympathised with Mr Mirza's family, as she had lost her only son in an accident.

Following the incident Mrs Abdalla, from Westbury Park, was charged with careless driving. She pleaded guilty and was fined £200, with £40 costs, and disqualified from driving for a year.

Lee Selkirk, a security officer at Tesco, was at the garage on the day of the accident, June 2 last year. He told the inquest that at around 2.30pm he saw a woman come into the garage shop saying she had hit someone at the back of the garage. Mr Selkirk said: "I went round the back and saw a red car and the deceased on the floor in a crouched position. "I tried to administer first aid until the paramedics arrived and they took over."

PC David Horsley arrived at the garage at 4pm. He said: "Mr Mirza was parked in his red Toyota Corolla beside the air and water lines at the Tesco supermarket filling station. While standing outside his vehicle he was approached by Mrs Abdalla, who had just parked her silver Mazda car behind the Toyota. Although there is no available evidence to corroborate Mrs Abdalla's story, it was probably her intention to move her car closer to him to enable him to put air in it. In my personal opinion, Mrs Abdalla accidentally put her foot on the accelerator at the point she wanted to put her foot on the brake pedal." PC Horsley also said that Mrs Abdalla was driving an automatic car, which only had two pedals, which may have caused her to be confused.

Bristol Coroner Paul Forrest said: "It seems Mr Mirza offered to help Mrs Abdalla inflate a tyre and for some reason, when she got in the car, it lurched forward and collided with the deceased." Mr Forrest described Mr MIrza's death as "tragic" and returned a verdict of accidental death.

UK: Sneaky Petrol Firms Cash In 6p rise in six weeks

Oil companies have quietly raised petrol prices by 6p a gallon in the last six weeks. Unleaded petrol has gone up from 74.12p to 75.63p per litre. The same applies to diesel.

Experts blame rising oil prices, and forecourt bosses yesterday denied profiteering. Ray Holloway, of the Petrol Retailers Association, said, "neither UK oil companies nor retailers control these costs. Similar increases have been applied across Europe. Since September 2002, crude oil has risen by three to four dollars per barrel. Petrol retailers are not profiteering when prices rise. The only way they can recover the additional money they spend buying fuel is by raising the retail price. Profits in the forecourt industry have been critically low since 1996, and around 1000 forecourts have closed each year since then."

Mr Holloway blamed the Government for high fuel costs. He said: "Taxes account for more than three quarters of the retail price."

The threat of war on Iraq is driving world oil prices up. The problem has been made worse by OPEC, the alliance of world oil producers, announcing plans to sell less oil. A strike in the Venezuelan oil industry has also hit the market.

The petrol price survey comes from fuel management firm Arval PHH, who checked 12,000 of Britain's 14,000 forecourts. They found that some Scots drivers enjoy the cheapest petrol in Britain. In Leith, Edinburgh, and Coupar Angus, Perthshire, a litre costs as little as 70.70p - almost 5p less than average. But motorists in Lerwick and Thurso pay well above the average at 82.90p a litre.