european edition - ErpecNews

Italian beauty and absurdity
When luxury becomes a commodity, there's
little left but to make commodities luxurious.
The image shows a newly constructed petrol
Crime cost the UK £ 22 million in 2010
Crime on Britain's forecourts cost fuel retailers
over £ 22 million in 2010, a £ 3 million rise on
the 2009 figures according to the annual forecourt
crime survey conducted by BOSS. The
British Oil Security Syndicate (BOSS) 2010
survey says, the main source of the estimated
total loss is £ 15.5 million is resulting from
‘drive off’ incidents. A further £ 4.5 million is
Hellenic Petroleum also part of Greek asset sales
Greece's biggest refiner Hellenic Petroleum
was included in the country's privatisation
plan, according to an EU / IMF report. Greece
will sell its 35.5 percent stake in Hellenic
in the first quarter of 2012, according to
a provisional list of privatisation assets attached
to the report. Hellenic Petroleum
has a market capitalisation of 2.06 billion
euros (US $ 3 billion). It is listed on the
station in Cuneo, Piemonte, Italy, designed
by Damilano Studio Architects and it's rather
pleasant to look at if modern architecture is
your thing. Reinforced concrete enclosing a
glass wall creates staggered, latitudinal forms
that are sliced by aluminum canopies front
and back, with blood red fuel pumps. At the
back is a red steel block bearing a work of
art that looks like a long armed, dog-headed
man on a toilet. It is actually “a wolf howling,
illuminated at night, drawing attention to
that urgent need”!
lost from motorists claiming to have ‘no means
of payment’ (NMoP) on the day and then they
fail to return to clear their debt. The combined
drive off and NMoP loss for the average UK
service station in 2010 compared with the
previous year has risen by 2.5 percent in terms
of litres, but in reality by 19 percent in cash
terms due to the effect of increased fuel prices.
Athens Stock Exchange. The company runs
refineries in Greece and Macedonia and
petrol stations across southeast Europe and
in Cyprus. Hellenic's biggest single shareholder
is POIH Investment Ltd, with a 41
percent stake. The company had hitherto
not been included in Greece's privatisation
plans, which are to raise 50 billion euros by
2015 to pay down debt.
bP rolls out contactless payment terminals
BP petrol stations, together with its German
unit Aral, will begin accepting MasterCard
PayPass contactless payments across its UK,
Swiss and German forecourts over the next
two years. Under the new development, consumers
with PayPass-enabled payment cards
will be able to pay for BP / Aral purchases up
to the value of £ 15 (US $ 24.63) in the UK,
25 euros in Germany and 40 Swiss francs
in Switzerland as the roll-out of contactless
terminals across the three countries commences.
Consumers can also continue to use
the same cards for higher value transactions if
Orlen deutschland to buy 200 – 250 petrol stations
German unit of listed fuel giant PKN Orlen,
Orlen Deutschland, intends to buy petrol
stations in Germany, CEO Jozef Niedworok
said during a Polish-German economic forum.
“We want to buy 200 – 250 more stations in
Germany”, Niedworok confirmed. The firm's
mid-term goal is to have 750 stations in five
years at the latest “but we want to start network
authenticated with a PIN or signature. As of
the first quarter of 2011, more than 92 million
PayPass cards and devices have been issued
for use at approximately 311 000 merchant
locations worldwide.
expansion right now”, Niedworok added. The
cost of a single station acquisition is estimated
at 100 000 – 200 000 euros or up to 1 million
euros in very good locations. Its scope of
operations in the country may expand beyond
that region and while buying new stations,
Orlen Deutschland will have to close tens of
unprofitable ones, the CEO also said.
LatESt NEwS, EVENtS, JObS ONLINE – www.PEtrOLPLaza.COM
NEwS – EUrOPE
dresser wayne
modifies brand name
GE announced that Dresser Wayne will
now operate as Wayne. The new brand
name will go to market with the tagline,
“A GE Energy Business”. GE acquired
Dresser, Inc., including its Dresser
Wayne business segment, in February
2011. The determination to maintain
the individual Wayne brand came after
researching the existing equity of the
Wayne name and the value it holds for
fuel retailers worldwide.
Ukrgazvydobuvannia
to buy stations & oil
depots in Ukraine
According to the Ukrainian Economic
Development and Trade Ministry, Ukrgazvydobuvannia
is buying 69 filling
stations from eight firms for 1.281 billion
hryvnias and three oil depots from
Chernihiv-based Atikva for 37.58 million
hryvnias. The largest number of filling
stations will be bought from Atikva – 42
filling stations for 718.63 million hryvnias.
Ukrgazvydobuvannia is to buy from one
to nine filling stations from each other
company. Apart from Atikva, the sellers
are Vek Ltd. (Odesa region), Kalyna-
Zakarpattia Ltd. (Zakarpattia region),
Bina Ltd. (Kharkiv), Borol subsidiary,
Regen Oil Ltd. (Cherkasy), Merkator
Filling Stations Ltd. (Poltava region) and
Agrokhimservice Ltd. (Sumy). According
to the announcements, Ukrgazvydobuvannia
is planning to buy the filling stations
using its own funds.
Foreign fill-ups keep
Luxembourg's motor
running
Three quarters of all fuel sold in Luxembourg
is taken abroad to neighbouring
France, Belgium and Germany. Lower fuel
taxes in the duchy mean “tank tourism”
is big business. Wasserbillig – meaning
“cheap water” – is a picturesque village
in Luxembourg. Despite its name, it's
cheap gas, not water, that the village
is known for. Most of the cars driving
through here are heading to one of the
11 gas stations on the main street, and
almost all the cars have German license
plates. Luxembourg is said to rely on
this flow of business and the money
it brings. If that were taken away, the
country would have to be subsidized in
some way by Europe.
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