erpecnews No 18_2010_asia_4.indd

an international retail petroleum news digest 

erpecnews 

ASIA, MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA EDITION 

www.erpecnews.com 

Caltex’s Mobil purchase plan would increase 

prices says Australia’s ACCC 

Caltex Australia Ltd.’s proposed acquisition 

of ExxonMobil’s fi lling stations was blocked 

because it would allow the nation’s largest oil 

refi ner to increase prices, the country’s competition 

regulator said. The Australian Competition 

Essar Oil to double its petrol pumps 

Essar Oil Limited, India’s largest private 

fuel retailer, is reportedly drawing up plans 

to double its petrol pumps by March 2011. 

The move comes close on heels of the Indian 

government fi rming up plans to deregulate 

petrol and diesel prices. The Ruia-owned 

company is selling petrol and diesel produced 

at its 280 000 barrels per day refi nery at Vadinar 

in Jamnagar district of Gujarat through 

1 293 petrol pumps. “We are expanding our 

petroleum retail business ... we are going to 

increase the number of petrol pumps to 2 500 

by next fi scal”, Ruia informed. Essar Oil Ltd 

is a fully integrated oil company and its assets 

include developmental rights in proven 

exploration blocks, a 10.5 MTPA refi nery in 

Electronic monitoring equipment for Qatar 

Petrol stations in Qatar have been asked to 

install devices to check fuel levels in reservoirs 

as part of new safety measures being implemented 

in light of the recent blast at a station 

in Doha. Petrol Station Executive Committee 

(PSEC) chairman Engineer Saad Ali al-Kubaisi 

informed that the new electronic instruments 

should start to arrive in the country by April 

and usage would become mandatory by June. 

Some 50 passengers of a bus were injured 

and Consumer Commission gave details last 

month of its December decision to oppose the 

A $ 300 million (US $ 262 million) bid. The 

transaction would likely reduce competition 

and push prices higher, partly because of the 

“high barriers to entry”, the regulator said on 

its website. “Caltex has not yet determined 

its position in response to the ACCC’s announced 

intention to oppose the acquisition”, 

said Georgie Wells, a spokeswoman for the 

company in Sydney. The oil refi ner continues 

to search for potential acquisitions after the 

decision to block the proposed purchase of 302 

Mobil-branded fi lling stations from Exxon, 

Caltex Chief Executive Offi cer Julian Segal said. 

the west coast of India and close to 1 300 oil 

retail stations across India. Plans are under way 

to increase its exploration acreage in various 

parts of the globe, expand its refi nery capacity 

to 36 MMTPA and open 5 000 retail outlets. 

Essar Oil’s 10.5 MTPA refi nery at Vadinar 

in Gujarat started commercial production on 

May 1, 2008. It has been built with state-ofthe-art 

technology and has the capability to 

produce petrol and diesel suitable for use in 

India as well as advanced international markets. 

It produces LPG, naphtha, light diesel 

oil, aviation turbine fuel (ATF), kerosene, 

furnace oil and bitumen. The refi nery has 

been designed to handle a diverse range of 

crude – from sweet to sour and light to heavy. 

when the underground storage tank at the 

petrol station in the Hilal area exploded in 

October. “During investigations, we found 

certain safety instructions had been ignored. 

One was the lack of a safety aspect of the storage 

tank compartment”, said al-Kubaisi, who 

is also Qatar Petroleum (QP) HSE director. 

“There was an opening in the sand which 

coupled with ageing, allowed air to enter the 

tank and mix with the fuel”, the offi cial said. 

Issue No 2 | March 2010 

Iran looks for fuel 

export markets 

Iran aims to export fuel reserves to its 

neighbours, riding on the success of the 

400 000 tons of diesel sent to Iraq in the 

past nine months. Farid Ameri, the Managing 

Director at the National Iranian Oil 

Products Distribution, said apart from 

diesel, his country exported 90 000 tons 

of kerosene and 6 000 tons of jet fuel to 

Iraq since the start of the Iranian calendar 

year on March 21, 2009. Ameri added the 

government in Tehran is exploring a similar 

relationship with Pakistan and Armenia. 

Petrol stations at the border with Afghanistan 

were instructed in January to counter 

the impact of cross-border smuggling. Iran 

has energy transit networks established 

with several of its neighbours, including 

Azerbaijan and Armenia. Tehran is keen to 

move ahead with the long-delayed pipeline 

from the South Pars gas fi eld in the Persian 

Gulf to Pakistani and Indian markets, but 

that project suffers from lingering diplomatic 

concerns. Iran sits on some of the 

largest oil and gas deposits in the world but 

struggles to fi nd a suitable market because 

of crippling economic sanctions. 

Engen adopts 

reward programme 

The virtual money, earned when First National 

Bank customers shop, can now be 

spent on fuel at 600 petrol stations in SA, 

in addition to other retail outlets, such as 

Look and Listen and Kalahari.net. eBucks 

launched the initiative at the beginning of 

the year as a way of allowing members to 

spend the R500 million in unspent rewards. 

The company says it is too soon to tell how 

the partnership is doing, as new partners 

such as Engen only feel the effects after a 

year or so. Engen retail marketing manager 

Pierr Roodt explains that the company has 

put technological systems in place to allow 

widespread usage of debit and credit cards 

nationally at the company’s stations. 

erpecnews is published by McLean events in conjunction with PetrolPlaza – www.erpecnews.com

2 

NEWS – MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA & ASIA 

CNOOC obtains oil 

products export license 

The CNOOC Group of China has been 

licensed to export oil products, thereby 

providing an outlet for its Huizhou 

Refi nery to avoid head-to-head competition 

with China’s domestic market oil 

duopoly. Under the license, CNOOC is 

expected to receive a quota to conduct 

fuel exports under a special processing 

deal that waives a 17 percent value-added 

tax for overseas shipments – a policy 

sweetener initiated in late 2008 to help 

refiners trim their bulging domestic 

inventories. Chinese Customs’ statistics 

revealed that in the fi rst 11 months of 

2009, China’s gasoline exports rose by 

120 percent on year, while its diesel grew 

eight fold. CNOOC also operates 207 

petrol stations in Shanghai. 

ENOC to spend 

AED 50 million 

Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) 

is spending AED 50 million to modernise 

its ENOC / EPPCO service stations in 

Dubai and the northern Emirates. 

Under the plans customers will be able 

to fi ll up their cars and have the amount 

automatically deducted from a personalised 

account. The ‘Fill and Go’ scheme 

will recognise vehicle number plates that 

are registered under the plan, ENOC 

say the scheme will be in place during 

early 2010. 

Tycoon in Burma 

takes over fuel 

imports and sales 

Burmese business tycoon Tay Za, a 

close associate of the junta generals, has 

reportedly co-founded an association 

to control the importation and sale of 

gasoline and diesel fuel. An offi cial at the 

regime-owned Federation of Chambers 

of Commerce and Industry and Rangoonbased 

business sources said the Fuel Oil 

Importers and Distributors Association 

(FOIDA) was formed on Jan. 23, with Tay 

Za as chairman and Aung Thet Mann 

as vice chairman. The association has 

138 members. Sources said that the 

FOIDA will oversee the operations of 

importing, pricing and distribution of 

gasoline and diesel. Aung Thet Mann 

is the son of the regime’s No. 4, Gen. 

Thura Shwe Mann. 

Shell expansion faces diffi culties in India 

Shell India has announced that it ended 

2009 with 74 petrol stations, compared 

with 50 outlets a year earlier. After receiving 

a license in 2004 to open 2 000 

outlets in India, expansion has turned out 

to be more difficult than anticipated in 

the face of what Shell describes as predatory 

pricing by and government subsidies 

for, state-owned competitors. However, 

the company, which has not released any 

profit or other financial data for its Indian 

Petrol sites in South Africa are going, going, gone 

In South Africa there is an apparent trend 

in the market for entrepreneurial players 

to invest in active and closed fuel station 

sites on a national level, as witnessed by 

the recent appearance of many of these 

properties on the auction fl oor. Whilst this 

movement and the opportunity it brings 

to corporate’s and individuals is positive, 

the question being asked locally is, why 

are they being sold? Seasoned auctioneer 

Ariella Kuper of the Alliance Group offers 

some insights There is a commercial realignment 

of either the major players’ property 

portfolios or a refocus of their operational 

strategies. Alliance confirms they have 

taken and confi rmed over R 75 million to 

auction in this sector since August 2008, 

including active and closed retail fuel sites 

and depots. Clients include the fuel icons 

Mozambique gets ten more rural fi lling stations 

Ten of the 20 fi lling stations planned for rural 

areas, under the project named “Geographical 

Incentive”, have now been completed. 

Geographical Incentive, is a fund created 

by the government to support expansion of 

access to liquid fuels in remote areas. The 

building of the fi lling stations began in 2009, 

when Mozambican contractors were hired 

in each of the selected districts. Some of 

them, however, did not meet the government’s 

conditions and their contracts had 

to be scrapped. Energy Minister Salvador 

Namburete said “In the fi rst phase of building 

these rural fi lling stations unfortunately we 

had problems with some of the contractors 

because of the poor quality of their work 

and we had to cancel some of the contracts. 

But there are at least 10 of them that have 

been confi rmed as being completed and are 

in perfect operating conditions.” The fi lling 

stations have a water supply system and, in 

areas not yet connected to the national grid, 

they draw their power supply from solar 

panels. Although 10 of the units are not 

LATEST NEWS, EVENTS, JOBS ONLINE – WWW.PETROLPLAZA.COM 

operations, confirmed it was still aiming 

for rapid expansion. An unnamed company 

official told local media: “We have 74 

outlets up and running. A few more are 

in the process of commissioning.” Competition 

has recently intensified through 

the fast growth of private sector petrol 

networks operated by Reliance Industries 

(with around 1 400 stations) and Essar Oil 

(around 1 250 stations), in the anticipation 

of imminent petrol pricing deregulation. 

Engen, Shell, BP and Chevron. Each fuel 

company appears to have its own focus, often 

stemming from directives of their international 

head offi ces. Some value their retail 

sites as key in their activities, whilst others 

place more emphasis on the supply at the 

refi nery level. For example, CoRo (Company 

Owned, Retail Operated) used to be the 

preferred model for some fuel companies 

where they wholly owned the site and had a 

retailer manage it as a tenant. In the current 

economic environment, with rationalisation 

and an emphasis on specialisation, several 

fuel companies prefer to give retailers the 

opportunity to own and run their own site 

whilst protecting the brand through stringent 

clauses in the lease agreement that prevent 

other fuel suppliers from benefi tting from 

the site or equipment. 

yet completed, the National Energy Fund 

(FUNAE), the institution that is implementing 

the project, has already started the 

second phase to build 21 more such stations. 

“Twenty one fi lling stations will be built this 

year in the second phase and we will add 

the 10 that were not completed in the fi rst 

phase, totaling 31 units”, said Namburete. 

He explained that the problem of fuel supply 

in rural areas is connected to the cost 

of transporting fuel, because of the long 

distances, on top of which comes the matter 

of the quality of the product and security. 

Namburete believed that these problems 

will be minimised with the fi lling stations 

built by the government. The project is to 

build a total of 50 fi lling stations in various 

districts across the country. According to 

the government’s statistics, 43 percent of 

the 227 fi lling stations existing in 2008 were 

concentrated in Maputo city. Mozambique 

has 128 districts in its 11 provinces and the 

government’s target is that all the districts 

should have at least one fi lling station by 2012.

Prices displayed at petrol stations in South 

Africa to be supervised 

The SA Department of Energy will shortly 

begin visiting fi lling stations to check that their 

petrol prices are being correctly advertised 

each week. Should this be found not to be 

the case, the fi lling stations concerned could 

be summarily closed down. This is the fi rst 

time since the Petroleum Products Amendment 

Act came into force in 2003 that the 

Emarat in UAE’s National Environment Day 

Emarat participated in the UAE’s celebrations, 

which was held under the slogan “Emirates Free 

of Plastic Bags”. Mr. Hussain Kazim, Manager 

Corporate Communications at Emarat, said 

that the Corporation is well aware of the risks 

imposed by use of regular non composable plastic 

bags on the environment. He said “Emarat 

stands committed to taking strict measures to 

Nigeria to import 400 million litres of petrol 

Major Oil marketers are bringing in 400 

million litres of petrol between February and 

March to help solve the problem of prolonged 

fuel scarcity in the country. The oil majors 

include; Oando Plc, Total Nigeria Plc, MRS, 

African Petroleum Plc, Conoil Plc and Mobil 

Oil Nigeria Plc. The Major Oil Marketers As- 

HPCL in India to open 1,250 Hamara Pumps 

Oil major HPCL is planning to roll out 1 250 

petrol pumps in rural areas in the next fi ve years 

entailing investments above Rs 312 crore. Arun 

Balakrishnan, HPCL Chairman and Managing 

Director said: “We will roll out 250 petrol 

pumps in rural areas every year for the next 

fi ve years. Setting up each petrol pump would 

cost around Rs 25 lakh and will be named as 

Hamara Pump”, he added. 

Currently, HPCL has 1 500 retail outlets in 

rural areas, which fetches around 25 percent 

of their total revenue from retail business. 

Balakrishnan said increasing the number of petrol 

pumps in rural areas would help them increase 

department’s offi cials will police fi lling stations. 

Nelisiwe Magubane, director-general 

at the Department of Energy, informed that 

the act will be amended to permit spot fi nes 

if fi lling stations fail to meet requirements. 

Another condition with which fi lling stations 

must comply is to ensure that pumps are 

properly labelled. 

ensure that we play a responsible and active 

role in the local community to reduce such 

waste.” He also added that Emarat supports 

this vital event by printing the logo of the 

National Environment Day on the T-shirts 

and caps worn by the employees at the service 

stations, which can aid in raising the awareness 

to the public regarding this important issue. 

Mr. Kazim added “Biodegradable bags have 

been designed to protect the environment as 

they decompose once exposed to sunlight or 

buried underground.” To further this positive 

initiative Emarat has instructed all its sites 

not to give out shopping bags on purchases 

of small items but only on major purchases 

or when requested by the customer. 

sociation of Nigeria said that the marketers 

had planned to bring in 10 cargoes of petrol. 

“Each cargo is equivalent to 40 million litres 

of petrol. This is just our own contribution 

to solving the fuel shortage problem as the 

Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation 

also has its own import programme.” 

their retail market share while increasing the 

percentage of revenue from rural operations as 

well. He said the detail project report (DPR) 

for the 15 million tonne per annum capacity 

refi nery in the west coast of India was being 

prepared and the company has already asked 

the Maharashtra government for 3 000 acres. 

HPCL, which has 7.5 million tonne refi nery 

at Vizag in Andhra Pradesh, wants to set up 

a 15 million tonne refi nery at an investment 

above Rs 25 000 crore in between Mumbai 

and Goa. HPCL jointly with Laxmi Mittal is 

also setting up a 9 million tonne refi nery at 

Bhatinda in Punjab. 

To advertise in the European or Middle East, Africa and Asian edition of erpecnews, contact 

Stephen Bozdan by emailing stephen@mcleanevents.com or telephone +36 702 95 9 758 



Emarat signs franchise 

agreements 

Emirates General Petroleum Corporation 

“Emarat” signed fi ve agreements granting 

UAE investment fi rms the franchise of 

its brand “Bakeria” which is specialized 

in the light meals and pastry and “Fresh 

Plus” which they say represents the modern 

concept of shopping in a sophisticated way. 

Terpel is interesting 

for PETROBRAS 

Petrobras is interested in acquiring Colombian 

fuel distributor Terpel, a newspaper 

reported. Exxon Mobil, capital funds and 

holdings in Colombia and abroad may be also 

interested in Terpel, the daily said. Terpel is 

89.9 percent controlled by Colombian investment 

company Sociedad de Inversiones en 

Energia (SIE). SIE is controlled by US energy 

investment company AEI through Proenergia 

Internacional. Last week SIE denied media 

reports that AEI had sold or transferred its 

indirect stake in Terpel. However, SIE is 

studying market opportunities for in vest ment 

or disinvestment. Among them is the inclusion 

of strategic investors which implies the sale 

of stakes in SIE by its current shareholders, 

the company has said. No decisions on the 

matter have been announced. 

More petrol stations 

for NOCK in Kenya 

The National Oil Corporation of Kenya 

(Nock) is looking at establishing more petrol 

stations across the country to actively carry 

out its role of infl uencing market prices. 

The corporation formed to stabilise and 

infl uence pump prices, has largely been 

forced to follow the dictates of the market 

controlled by private players, mainly the 

multinationals.“We are unable to fulfi l one 

of our core functions of infl uencing market 

prices for petroleum products as our market 

share is minimal,” said Mwendia Nyaga, the 

Nock managing director. Nock intends to 

grow its retail distribution network from 

61 to 165 stations in the next three years. 

3

All text on this page is submitted and written by suppliers. Please email product news to editor@erpecnews.com 

Hectronic: More security for HecStar 

Lever Assist for ZVA Slimline 2 nozzles 

Recently erpecnews asked Stefan Kunter, Managing 

Director ot Elafl ex HIBY, to explain the 

thinking behind the new Lever Assist product 

they have now introduced into the market. He 

wrote to us with the following text. 

Fuel nozzles are nearly as old as cars. Over 

the decades nozzles have developed from a 

simple valve to a lightweight fully automatic 

shut off nozzle with a host of safety and environmental 

features. Petrol fi lling stations have 

evolved from the days when it was common 

place to have operator attended service to 

ensure correct and safe refuelling, to today’s 

modern self service with the motorist being 

responsible for the grade selection and fi lling. 

The motoring population has also changed 

with female drivers representing nearly 50 percent 

of all drivers as well as senior citizens 

enjoying the pleasures of driving in their sunset 

years. Regulations govern the construction 

and operation of forecourt equipment. In 

many countries it is common practise for the 

Hectronic claims to breaking new ground with 

HecStar. It is the fi rst autofuel terminal in 

Switzerland which they say has consequently 

been developed with the aim to meet the latest 

PCI / DSS industry standards. These standards 

describe all those security aspects which have 

to be met for debit and credit card payments. 

“This has been an important step forwards 

for public fi lling stations”, states Carlos Klöti, 

Managing Director of Hectronic Switzerland. 

The customer receives a barcode receipt if 

he overpaid with banknotes thanks to the 

barcode function. This receipt is scanned in 

and redeemed the next time the customer fi lls 

up his car. The pilot plant for Rufer AG in 

Gossau has already been fi tted with HecStar 

and works perfectly. “This autofuel terminal 

is the ideal piece of equipment for any public 

fi lling station due to its state-of-the-art fi ttings”, 

emphasizes Carlos Klöti. 

motorist to use the hold open latch for the 

lever to provide effortless refuelling. In some 

countries such as France, the UK, Holland, 

Australia and Finland the use of the hold 

open latch is not allowed. Elafl ex developed 

their new Lever Assist for the ZVA Slimline 

2 nozzles primarily in response to customer’s 

demands and to improve the physical comfort 

for today’s motorist. The Lever Assist supports 

holding the lever without compromising safety 

or regulations. The required force to hold open 

the lever is reduced by nearly 90 percent. The 

Lever Assist is part of the lever and is easily and 

intuitive engaged when the lever is pulled and 

held in position with the little fi nger. When 

the lever is let go, the Lever Assist releases. 

The functionality is accepted by all regulatory 

authorities. ZVA Slimline 2 version nozzles 

can be retrofi tted with the Lever Assist within 

minutes by a trained service technician or 

factory fi tted on request. Thank you Stefan 

for an excellent response. 

PDQ Manufacturing Launches New LaserWash 

PDQ Manufacturing, Inc., the leading manu - 

facturer of touch-free vehicle wash systems, 

is very proud to announce its newest Laser- 

Wash ® In-Bay Automatic Vehicle Wash System. 

This newest LaserWash incorporates 

revolutionary Smart 360 Technology that 

enables the machine to instantly respond 

to the dynamic wash conditions in the bay, 

resulting in faster wash speeds, increased 

revenue, lower cost of ownership and a 

quicker return on investment. 


SUPPLIER NEWS 

FLEX-ING Promotions 

FLEX-ING is pleased to announce the 

promotion of Brad Burgess to the position 

of National Accounts Manager and 

Brad Hitesman to the position of National 

Accounts Manager. Burgess will work 

closely with independent manufacturer’s 

representatives and engineering firms 

within assigned territories and Hitesman 

will work closely with independent manufacturer’s 

representatives and engineering 

fi rms within assigned territories. 

New Tanknology Licensee 

Ecología y Petróleo (EPSA) of Tampico, 

Tamaulipas, Mexico has become an International 

Licensee of Tanknology. EPSA 

currently performs Underground Storage 

Tank (UST) testing and related services 

for fueling facilities throughout various 

states of the Mexican Republic. EPSA 

is certifi ed by PEMEX, the largest oil 

company in Mexico, to perform tank 

and line tightness testing at its branded 

facilities. According to Ignacio Allende, 

Tankno logy’s Director of International 

Operations, EPSA will now offer tank 

tests utilizing the company’s SureTest tank 

testing system and ullage tests using its 

U3 Ullage testing device.“The addition of 

Tanknology’s SureTest tank testing method 

will provide a signifi cant competitive advantage 

for EPSA,” Allende said. More details 

www.tanknology.com 

Franklin introduces 

new spill container 

Franklin Fueling Systems announced the 

next generation in spill containment with 

the launch of the Defender Series spill 

container. Franklin say that this latest 

development is the product of combining 

years of knowledge and experience 

in forecourts across the globe with the 

latest innovations in spill containment, 

to provide one all-encompassing and 

evolvable spill container. According 

to Franklin, the Defender Series spill 

container was engineered and designed 

with the future in mind having several 

features including multiple monitoring 

methods as well as the ability to be easily 

upgraded from a single wall container to a 

double wall container in the fi eld, without 

having to break concrete. These options 

allow the station owner to evolve the spill 

containment as regulations change in 

their specifi c area. 

5

EUROPEAN NEWS 

New stations 

planned in Georgia 

Georgian retailer Wissol is planning to 

build up to 15 petrol stations throughout 

the country, making a total investment of 

10 million GEL, concentrating construction 

of stations out of Tbilisi, according 

to Samson Pkhakadze, Chairman of the 

Wissol Board of Directors. Wissol is one 

of the leading oil importing and distribution 

companies in Georgia 

HecStars for Neste 

Oil company Neste has signed a long 

term deal for modern autofuel terminals 

from Hectronic. Two years ago oil 

company Neste had 60 of its unmanned 

filling stations in Poland equipped with 

HecStars. Now another 100 sites are 

having them fitted. “It’s a fantastic deal 

and a great endorsement of what we do”, 

says Sales Director Oliver Huber, who 

handled negotiations with section head 

Frank Gampp and Hectronic Poland, 

which worked out positively all round. 

The rollout is under way, now the 2nd 

generation autofuel terminals are being 

gradually installed. These have the latest 

technology that corresponds to EMV-2 / 

PCI standards. They are also set up for 

accepting payments via barcode, which 

in turn means that it can handle monies 

on account. The same applies to 

non-contact credit card payments via 

RFID. “It’s simple, it’s fast and there’s 

no wear and tear”, says Frank Gampp, 

listing the advantages of these models. 

Besides the new equipment, Neste 

has also ordered 60 upgrade sets for 

the equipment already installed. This 

means that, to undergo the technical 

upgrade, just the electronic insert needs 

to be exchanged rather than the entire 

autofuel terminals. 

Bennett+Sauser AG 

Refuelling systems 

Bielstrasse 80 

CH-4503 Solothurn 

Phone +41 32 625 93 11 

Fax +41 32 623 15 35 

mail@bennett-sauser.ch 

www.bennett-sauser.ch 

Petrol Ofi si gets new chairwoman 

Petrol Ofi si, the fuel retailing joint venture 

of OMV AG and Dogan Holding, appointed 

Hanzade Dogan Boyner as its new chairwoman. 

Dogan Boyner will replace her father, 

Aydin Dogan, who has stepped down. “Our 

company’s board chairman, Aydın Dogan, has 

willingly resigned from his post as chairman 

of the board of directors and member of the 

board of directors. Hanzade Dogan Boyner 

has been appointed to fi ll the vacant seat 

as chairwoman for the board while Yahya 

Üzdiyen has been appointed as a board 

member,” said Petrol Ofi si in a statement 

published. Boyner is a graduate of the London 

School of Economics. Immediately after 

receiving her bachelor’s degree in economics 

ALDI expands Diskont petrol stations in Austria 

ALDI-controlled Hofer has decided to install its 

petrol station concept, Diskont, across Austria 

after running a six-month trial at three Hofer 

store car parks in the Salzburg area. Hofer, 

together with its petrol station operator, Free 

Energy Traiding GmbH (FE), plans set up 

a further 27 Diskont stations during 2010. 

When the three Salzburg stations opened in 

June 2009, it caused traffi c jams because of 

the low prices offered and the interest has 

6 LATEST NEWS, EVENTS, JOBS ONLINE – WWW.PETROLPLAZA.COM 

been positive over the entire test period said 

FE’s Managing Director, Markus Friesacher. 

According to Friesacher, the combination of 

groceries and petrol at discount prices, is a 

success in Austria because these two items 

have a large impact on the average household 

budget. In order to offer lower than usual 

discount prices, the stations are unmanned 

and payments can only be made by debit or 

credit cards. 

At home where others are on the move. 

Manufacture of fuel pumps I Planning of filling stations I 

Installations and pipework I Vapour recovery inspections I 

Control organ of the environment inspectorate AGVS (UWI) 

Ask for detailed information on our 3-stage programme: 

SmartLine I ClassicLine I MultiLine 

in 1995, she joined Goldman Sachs London 

as a fi nancial analyst, becoming involved in 

large mergers and acquisition deals. Later, 

she received an MBA in fi nance and marketing 

from Columbia University in 1999, 

moving to Turkey later that year. Boyner 

launched Dogan On-Line as an ISP and 

developed the fi rm into the country’s leading 

Internet company with various portals and 

commerce sites. She was later appointed as 

deputy chairwoman of Dogan Gazetecilik, a 

company with fi ve major newspaper brands 

to its portfolio, including Milliyet, Radikal, 

Posta, Fanatik and Vatan.She is currently 

the vice president at the World Association 

of Newspapers and a founding member of 

the Global Relations Forum. She is further 

a member of the Brookings Institute International 

Advisory Council, the Association 

of Turkish Businessmen and Industrialists, 

the Foreign Economic Relations Board, 

the Young Presidents’ Organization and 

the Association of Woman Entrepreneurs. 

Apart from her business affi liations, she is 

also the founder and head of the successful 

“social mobilization” project “Dad, Send Me 

to School.” The campaign aims to overcome 

barriers restricting girls’ education in Turkey. 

Within four years, the campaign managed 

to raise more than 32 million Turkish Liras 

for scholarships, girls’ dormitories and other 

training.

Lukoil leases fi lling stations in Croatia 

Lukoil Croatia has leased two fi lling stations 

in Zagreb from local company Rox with a buy 

option, Zagreb-based media reported. If the 

outlets prove profi table, Lukoil Croatia plans 

to buy them after the 10-year lease expires. 

The value of the two fi lling stations is estimated 

at around 3.0 million euro (US $ 4.1 

million) each. Some 600 fi lling stations currently 

operate across Croatia with around 60 

of them owned by smaller players. Russian 

Carrefour selects Hypercom 

Hypercom Corporation announced that 

Carrefour, the largest retailer in Europe 

and second largest worldwide, will deploy 

Hypercom’s Wynid ® server-based payment 

solution and more than 12 000 PIN Pads with 

EMV contactless readers at 210 of its French 

hypermarkets, as well as at all of Carrefour’s 

petrol stations in France. The multi-million 

Slovakia road toll system causing confusion 

Slovakia’s electronic highway toll collection 

mega-project,– with a price tag of over 850 

million euros – began operations on January 1, 

2010. While its operator, SkyToll, calls the 

launch of e-toll collection successful and 

problem-free, transporters and truck drivers 

lining up in 10-hour queues at border 

crossings are frustrated and are calling 

the launch a chaotic failure. Operators of 

vehicles heavier than 3.5 tonnes, buses and 

other vehicles holding more than nine people 

including the driver, are now charged by 

the kilometre for driving on a total of 2 032 

kilometres of Slovak highways and fi rst-class 

roads. Highway transporters have been 

calling on the state to suspend the system’s 

operation for six months, saying it has not 

been suffi ciently prepared. The road carriers 

had originally threatened to gather at 

petrol stations and discuss their demands 

at these sites, but no major public protests 

were reported. According to one source, the 

oil major Lukoil entered the Croatian retail 

market in 2008 with the acquisition of local 

privately-owned fuel retailer Europa-Mil for 

an undisclosed price. The company currently 

runs a network of 21 fi lling stations in Croatia. 

Oil and gas company INA was the biggest 

fuel retailer in Croatia with 438 outlets at the 

end of 2009. Another major player is OMV 

Hrvatska which has 61 outlets, according to 

fi gures from its website. 

Tesco trials One-Stop brand in the UK 

UK retailer Tesco is trialling the One-Stop 

brand at forecourts in two of its superstores 

in Dudley and Cannock. Tesco, which owns 

One-Stop, said the move would give consumers 

more variety and choice at the sites. A 

national roll-out would depend on the trial’s 

success, the company added. “We are keen to 

fi nd out if this range better meets the needs 

of customers shopping on our forecourts,” 

said a Tesco spokesperson. “One-Stop will 

dollar agreement is believed to represent one 

of the world’s largest deployments of EMV 

contactless readers and represents a signifi cant 

expansion to Hypercom’s existing business 

with Carrefour. The giant retailer already uses 

Hypercom’s Wynid secure payment solution 

at 15 000 cash registers in its Market, City 

and Contact stores. 

transporters actually do not know when they 

are travelling on charged highway sections 

since these are not marked with signs. The 

carriers also claim that they are unable to 

pay with fuel cards although these had been 

listed as one of the optional forms of payment. 

It has also been reported that there 

are problems with the supply of onboard 

units (OBUs), the vehicle-mounted device 

which is necessary for the actual calculation 

of the vehicle’s toll. Some transporters say the 

OBUs are miscalculating the toll for certain 

road sections. The e-toll collection system 

is based on GPS-GSM satellite technology. 

The system includes six highway gates and 

40 control gates on parallel fi rst-class roads. 

SkyToll registered more than 330 000 transactions 

and collected 138 398 euros in tolls 

in the fi rst three days, with 8 600 vehicles 

carrying out at least one transaction. The 

vehicles used a total of 1 million kilometres 

of charged road sections. 

offer customers a high quality wide range of 

convenience goods, including newspapers and 

magazines, confectionery, household items 

and gifts.” The fascias were swapped over a 

couple of months ago according to staff at the 

two stores. Tesco confi rmed it had introduced 

One-Stop products at the stores. Tesco has 

440 forecourt stores attached to its superstores 

and is understood to have calculated the cost 

of a full roll-out of the One-Stop fascia. 

Cypriot stations re-open 

After 3 days of striking by petrol station 

operators in Cyprus at the end of February, 

which saw overnight petrol theft, empty 

schools and banks, ruined holidays and 

increasingly irate motorists, the government 

backed down to the relief of the local community. 

In Paralimni fi ve cars were emptied 

by thieves and there was a near riot at one 

station in Nicosia. Pump owners decided 

to shut down their outlets after the minister 

issued a decree putting a cap on fuel prices 

for eight days. The retail price-cap for a 

litre for 95-octane petrol was 95 cents and 

97 cents per litre for 98-octane petrol. 

Dresser Wayne and 

MOL tie up new deal 

Overnight diesel theft 

New Elafl ex website 

EUROPEAN NEWS 

Dresser Wayne has entered into a four-year 

agreement with MOL Group to supply fuel 

dispensers to the company’s retail locations 

and brands in Hungary, the Czech 

Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Italy, Croatia, 

Romania, Slovenia, Bosnia and Serbia. Béla 

Csorba, MOL network development and 

asset management director said, “We look 

forward to our relationship with Dresser 

Wayne. Their technology leadership, reliability 

and high quality product offering 

fi ts well into the MOL retail requirements.” 

MDM Services, a specialist Petroleum Services 

Contractor to the oil industry, based in 

the UK, are reporting that a number of their 

clients have experienced overnight major 

diesel fuel thefts from their underground 

storage tanks. The thieves appear to be 

targeting sites with direct fi lls. The average 

amount being stolen is approximately 6 000 

litres. Thieves are gaining access into the 

underground tanks by breaking the standard 

lock, removing the camlock or screw fi ll cap 

from the direct fi ll, allowing unrestricted 

access to pump fuel directly from the underground 

tank into a mobile bulk container 

or containers. MDM have developed their 

own underground Fuel Tank Anti-Theft 

System. Details www.mdmservices.co.uk 

Elafl ex are pleased to announce the launch 

of the new UK website. Customers and 

enquirers can select products from an 

online catalogue, confi gure their own hose 

assemblies or Slimline 2 nozzle. Check it 

out www.elafl ex.co.uk 

LATEST NEWS, EVENTS, JOBS ONLINE – WWW.PETROLPLAZA.COM 7


8 LATEST USA NEWS – WWW.PETROLPLAZA.COM 

8

BP receives offer for its retail fuels and 

convenience business in France 

BP has received an offer from Delek Europe B.V., 

to buy its French retail fuels and convenience 

business including selected fuels terminals. 

The proposed purchase price is 180 million 

euros in cash. On receipt of the offer to purchase 

BP’s approximately 416 petrol stations 

in France, BP has entered into a period of 

exclusivity with Delek Europe and has started 

discussions with the relevant works councils. 

The sale would also include interests or 

ownership in three fuel distribution depots 

ENI Agip buys ExxonMobil network in Austria 

Italian oil giant Eni, which is present in Austria 

through Agip, has announced the acquisition 

of ExxonMobil’s downstream business in the 

country, including a network of 135 Esso retail 

service stations. The sale and purchase agreement 

also includes ExxonMobil’s industrial 

Russia’s oil companies are heading West 

When the Russian oil company Lukoil built its 

fi rst petrol fi lling station in the Balkans, a 1998 

project in the Bulgarian capital of Sofi a, few 

analysts saw it as the beginning of a long-term 

strategy for energy dominance in South Eastern 

Europe. The most recent evidence of Russian’s 

plan occurred in March 2009 when Surgutneftegaz 

bought a 21 percent ownership stake 

in Hungary’s central energetic company MOL, 

previously held by Austrian OMV. By buying 

into the Hungarian company, Surgutneftegaz 

automatically gained a stake in Croatia’s INA, 

whose 47 percent share is owned by MOL. To 

limit Surgutneftegaz’s infl uence, the Hungarian 

company changed its shareholder voting rules. 

But there is no doubt that by entering into the 

ownership structure of MOL and INA, the 

Russians achieved entry into the Croatian and 

Hungarian market. This is not only a business 

triumph, but points to the geopolitical success 

of a ten-year Russian strategy. Russian companies 

now operate in all of the energy markets of 

Southeastern Europe. The dominant position 

in Bulgaria is held by Lukoil, which also has 

operations in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina 

(BiH), Montenegro and Croatia. Russia’s infl uence 

in Serbia was further strengthened last year 

and it is expected to include a long term 

agreement for acceptance of fuel cards. The 

proposed transaction is currently expected to 

be completed in the second half of this year. 

As well as an agreement for BP branding to 

remain on the forecourts for a number of years, 

under a licensing agreement, BP would also 

continue to supply fuel including premium 

BP Ultimate fuels under a supply agreement. 

If the offer is accepted and the deal is approved 

then BP staff currently working for the retail 

business would transfer to the new owner. 

Jean-Baptiste Renard, BP’s Head of Region for 

Europe and South Africa, said: “We believe 

the decision to sell is right for the business 

as it means the BP brand will stay on the 

forecourts, staff jobs would be retained and 

it would give the new owners an opportunity 

to keep investing in the business.” 

and wholesale business with 36 additional 

Esso branded retail service stations owned by 

resellers and its aviation fuel business at the 

Vienna and Linz airports. The completion of 

the transaction is subject to the approval of 

local competition authorities. 

when state-owned Gazprom took over Naftna 

Industries in Serbia. In BiH, Russia owns Naftna 

Industries in Republika Srpska (NIRS). It is clear 

that none of this occurred by chance or without 

great forethought. Indeed, the long-term strategy 

was executed through the business and political 

sectors, with the business component unfolding 

over a decade. During that time, some Russian 

companies made deals for short-term losses 

now seen as a bigger strategy for later success. 

The Russians expanded in the region by buying 

up existing fi rms and if that failed, set up and 

developed their own energy fi rms connected to 

existing ones. The process was costly, but well 

co-ordinated. In the fi nal tally, Russian companies 

will have achieved almost complete control of 

retail sales, refi neries and oil and natural gas 

transportation systems in every South Eastern 

European country in the next few years. In 

late 2003, the company undertook its largest 

investment when it purchased a 79.5 percent 

of Serbian oil company Beopetrol for 117 million 

euros. Beopetrol owned about 200 petrol 

fi lling stations and held 20 percent of the retail 

market for oil derivatives in Serbia. Most of the 

petrol fi lling stations were once owned by INA 

and were seized by Serbia when the Yugoslav 


EUROPEAN NEWS 

11 – Barcelona 

erpec will take place next year at the fi ve 

star Rey Juan Carlos Hotel in Barcelona, 

from 10th – 12th May 2011. Just 10 minutes 

from Barcelona airport, this famous 

resort is known as the King’s hotel. Details 

at www.hrjuancarlos.com 

Italian joint venture 

for TOTAL and ERG 

“TOTAL SA and Italian oil refi ner ERG SpA 

have agreed to set up a refi ning and marketing 

joint venture in Italy. Total and Erg will hold 

equity stakes of 49 percent and 51 percent 

respectively. Created through the merger 

of TOTAL Italia and ERG Petroli, the joint 

venture will be called TotalErg and will 

operate under both the TOTAL and ERG 

brands. They will become one of the largest 

marketing operators in Italy, with a 13 percent 

share of the retail market in Italy and over 

3 400 service stations, according to a statement. 

The venture will also be active in the 

refi ning business, with a capacity of roughly 

116 000 barrels a day, the companies said. The 

project has to be submitted to competition 

authorities. Until then, Total Italia and ERG 

Petroli will remain as separate, competing 

entities. Total is expected to pay around 65 

million euros for its stake”, ERG said. 

war broke out. Beopetrol’s service stations were 

outdated and burdened with a variety of property 

rights problems. Lukoil spent over fi ve years and 

76 million euros to turn the company around 

before it managed to turn a profi t in Serbia. 

These problems in Serbia slowed the company’s 

expansion plans and Lukoil’s next acquisition 

didn’t occur for another two years. On August 

17th 2005, based on a deal hammered out with 

the Macedonian government, a Lukoil subsidiary 

was set up in that country which now runs 

a dozen service stations. Many analysts were 

amazed at the time that a company as large as 

Lukoil would spend signifi cant resources on a 

market as small and closed as Macedonia. But 

it is clear that the company felt it was important 

to secure a presence in every country in the 

region. In 2006, Lukoil tried to do business in 

Slovenia by way of a strategic partnership with 

the Slovenian state-owned company Petrol. The 

deal was thwarted by Slovenian Prime Minister 

Janez Jansa, allegedly after receiving direct instructions 

from Brussels to do so. Nevertheless, 

Lukoil that same year continued to expand its 

business and in October of 2006 a subsidiary 

company was set up in Montenegro. Watch this 

space, as they say. 

9

EUROPEAN NEWS 

SOCAR to operate 60 

stations in Georgia 

SEG president Mair Mammadov says that 

currently the company owns 32 petrol stations 

operating under the SOCAR brand 

in Georgia. “Before the end of 2010 SEG 

is planning to bring its network in Georgia 

up to 60 stations. This increased network 

of petrol stations will allow us to control at 

least 17 – 18 percent of retail market of oil 

products of Georgia,” Mammadov added. 

Tesco plans to open 

15 outlets in Slovakia 

Tesco Stores one of the biggest players in 

Slovakia’s retail market, wants to open 

approximately 15 outlets across Slovakia 

this year. Last year, the retail chain opened 

eight outlets. In 2010, the company plans 

to focus in particular on its Tesco Express 

small-format outlets. Tesco has been operating 

on the Slovak market since 1996; it also 

operates 16 petrol stations. The company, 

which employs over 8 300 people, is among 

the biggest private employers in Slovakia. 

French end strike 

Total SA resumed fuel shipments from 

its refi neries in France after signing an 

agreement with unions to end a weeklong 

strike that’s hampered oil processing and 

curbed supplies at fi lling stations. Employees 

downed tools on Feb. 17 to protest 

the shutdown of refi ning at the Flanders 

complex, while demanding assurances on 

the future of Total’s other French plants, 

which supply about 50 percent of the 

nation’s fuel. The strike led to shortages 

at as many as 284 fi lling stations across 

the country. 

Murco in Scotland 

Murco Petroleum is building on its Scot - 

tish presence by adding a further four stations 

in Scotland’s central belt. Murco’s 

Marketing Director, Jeremy Clarke said: 

“Our original Scottish stations are performing 

well for us and we expect the 

new stations, which will all be branded 

Murco, to perform to the same degree 

and add to our exposure north of the 

border. “After a tough 2009, this is a great 

start for Murco in 2010 and we will continue 

to look for further network growth 

opportunities throughout the UK.” 

Statoil evaluates a new ownership structure 

“In the future, we believe that this unit’s 

growth and further development will be best 

achieved as an independent company with 

direct access to the capital markets”, says 

Statoil’s Chief Executive, Helge Lund. “A 

new ownership structure will help further 

strengthen this business, for the benefi t of 

the customers, as well as the employees”, says 

Jon Arnt Jacobsen, Executive Vice President 

for the Manufacturing & Marketing business 

area. Stock-exchange listing is assumed to 

Fuel supply problem in 

Greece get worse 

Many service stations in Athens ran out of 

petrol last month, while those still open were 

rationing supplies with a 20 euros limit per 

customer. Traffi c police were called to some 

outlets as cars queued for hundreds of yards. 

Meanwhile, the Greek government said a 

complex debt deal with investment bank 

Goldman Sachs that has come under scrutiny 

by the European Union was above board and 

will be explained. 

Possible sell off for Texaco outlets in Ireland 

British fuel group Malthurst is believed to be 

in talks with oil giant Chevron to purchase 

more than 20 of its company-owned Texaco 

fi lling stations in Ireland. It is understood that 

talks have been ongoing for some months. 

Malthurst formed two companies in December 

in preparation for its entry into the Irish market: 

MRH (Ireland) Petroleum Ltd and MRH 

(Ireland) Properties Ltd. Founded in 1997, 

Malthurst is the largest independent owner 

and operator of petrol stations in Britain, accounting 

for about 4 per cent of the market. 

It is headquartered in Essex and has 300 fi lling 

stations in England and Scotland using a 

number of brands, including Texaco and BP. 

It also runs a wholesale fuel business distributing 

to commercial and domestic customers. 

10 LATEST NEWS, EVENTS, JOBS ONLINE – WWW.PETROLPLAZA.COM 

be the most likely solution and may take 

place in the fourth quarter of this year at 

the earliest. The decision is prompted by an 

analysis of the development opportunities for 

Statoil’s energy and retail business (Energy 

and Retail – E&R), which includes service 

stations in eight countries and the supply of 

lubricants, aviation and marine fuels. The 

energy and retail business has developed 

significantly in recent years and is today 

strongly positioned in its markets. 

PKN refi nery is defi nately 

not for sale 

PKN Orlen has reaffi rmed its position that its 

Lithuanian refi nery is not for sale. “We are not 

in talks on the sale of Mazeikiu Nafta (Orlen 

Lietuva) with Russians or anybody else,” Dawid 

Piekarz, a spokesman for PKN, told media 

and news agencies. Poland’s treasury ministry 

will not stand in the way if PKN decides to 

sell the Lithuanian refi nery, the offi cial was 

quoted as saying. PKN bought the Mazeikiu 

Nafta refi nery in 2006. 

Chevron owns the Texaco brand and runs a 

large network of fi lling stations in Ireland. It 

is understood that the group is keen to sell 

its company-owned sites. Chevron also owns 

Texoil in Ireland. It is not clear how much 

Malthurst would pay for the Texaco stations 

but it would be expected to spend several 

million upgrading the forecourts and possibly 

rebranding them. At the height of the boom, 

fi lling stations in urban areas carried hefty 

price tags. But valuations have plunged and 

many sites bought for redevelopment have 

recently had their forecourt operations restored. 

Topaz is the biggest fuel group in Ireland with 

a share of 30 percent. It expects to make an 

operating profi t of 20 million euros this year 

on turnover of 3 billion euros plus.


11

EUROPEAN RED RETAIL NEWS 

Chevron to cut jobs 

Oil storage tanks at Chevron’s Burnaby oil refi nery. 

Chevron Corp. told employees last month that it 

will cut jobs in its refi ning business and consider 

exiting some markets, capping a series of similar 

actions by big oil producers and refi ners amid 

widespread pain in the gasoline-production 

business. A glut of refi ning capacity, stagnant 

demand and sweeping regulatory changes are 

combining to depress both the short- and longterm 

outlook for the business. Chevron had 

been seen as a relatively strong competitor in 

refi ning, due to its presence in higher-margin 

West Coast markets and the growing Asian- 

Pacifi c region. But the downturn is hitting even 

companies with geographic advantages hard. 

ConocoPhillips seems to be facing the same 

issues. In February it said it expects a loss in 

refi ning and marketing for the fourth quarter, 

citing low margins in turning crude oil into 

refi ned products and low refi nery utilization. 

Recently, Royal Bank of Scotland forecast 

a fourth-quarter loss for Royal Dutch Shell 

PLC’s refi ning and marketing divisions. Even 

ExxonMobil Corp., whose facilities are among 

the world’s most effi cient, has reported losses 

at its U.S. refi neries in the past two quarters. 

Chevron’s restructuring is the latest shift in its 

refi ning and marketing operations. In December, 

Chevron said it will stop supplying over a thousand 

independently owned fi lling stations in 

the eastern U.S. That followed its exit last year 

from marketing operations in Brazil and some 

African countries. The company also has said 

a review of its global downstream operations 

could include the closure of its Hawaii refi nery. 

USA NEWS 

Tampa Bay must clean up their act 

It has been almost twenty years and yet petrol 

stations, government and business storage 

facilities in Tampa Bay, Florida, have not 

met a deadline to upgrade faulty fuel storage 

tanks. Florida State put in the measures to 

protect potable water, whereby tank owners 

were required to upgrade single-walled tanks 

to double walls. Nearly 600 Tampa Bay area 

tanks still needing upgrades at almost 200 

locations, most of them fuel stations, according 

to a database by the Florida Department of 

Hess to offer gas-island vending 

Hess plans to offer gas-island vending at selected 

WilcoHess outlets in partnership with 

Vendgogh. Through this partnership, the two 

companies will install Vendgogh’s vending solutions 

at selected WilcoHess locations directly 

on the gas island. The vending machines are 

integrated with WilcoHess’ point of sale system 

to offer gas customers who don’t routinely go 

into the store the opportunity to buy at the 

pump. With a single swipe of their credit 

card, gas customers will be able to purchase 

California distributors 

ready to deliver air1 

Nine California companies – Toro Petroleum, 

Coast Oil Company, Van De Pol Enterprises, 

Allied Washoe, Cross Petroleum, Dewitt 

Petroleum, Beck Oil, J.B. Dewar and SoCo 

Group – are ready to supply every county in 

the state with Air1, the world’s leading diesel 

exhaust fl uid (DEF). The companies are 

ready to provide the education, equipment 

programs and DEF supply options, ranging 

from jugs to bulk, that their customers need to 

meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s 

standards to reduce air pollution. 

12 LATEST USA NEWS – WWW.PETROLPLAZA.COM 

Environmental Protection. Nearly 4 700 tanks 

state-wide, around 10 percent of Florida’s tanks 

failed, despite the risk of US $ 10 000 fi nes 

every day. “I think we gave them too much 

time,” Linda Young, Director of the Clean 

Water Network of Florida, asserts. Suncoast 

Oil of St. Petersburg, which has 25 tanks at 

seven locations, is one of many overdue. Now 

the state agency will give owners until this 

month to upgrade or close off the tank, or 

face fi nes starting in April. 

cold drinks while they refuel, then be on their 

way without delay. “We are excited about our 

partnership with Vendgogh”, said Larry Lytle, 

WilcoHess Vice President of Marketing. “This 

partnership is all about convenience. It will 

help us enhance the customer experience for 

our gas only customers and bring an unprecedented 

level of convenience to the gas island.” 

Research has shown that up to 70 percent of 

convenience store customers now buy only gas 

at the gas island and do not enter the store. 

Women cut their spending 

more than men 

A survey of more than 7 200 consumers in the 

US indicates that women are more careful in a 

down economy. While overall spending was 

down, results showed that more women (72 

percent) cut spending moderately to signifi - 

cantly than men (62 percent). Men and women 

reported similar levels of reduced spending in 

only four of 15 industry sectors and one of the 

four was gas stations. The others were bars, 

hotels and airlines, but gas stations were also 

one of the sectors where spending by both sides 

was reduced least, the research fi rm reported.

KPS FEATURE 

KPS KPS ‘ ‘ Making Making Fuel Fuel Flow Flow Safely Safely ’ ’ by Nick Needs 

In a week when KPS announced one of the 

most signifi cant developments in their company’s 

35 year history, I was invited to KPS 

headquarters in Kungsör, Sweden, to learn 

more about this leading global manufacturer 

of retail petroleum piping systems. 

On arrival at Skvasta airport, one hour west of 

Stockholm, I perhaps could have been forgiven 

for trying to fi nd a sleigh harnessed to eight 

Husky’s, bearing in mind the temperature was 

-29 degrees and there was enough snow in 

evidence to host the Winter Olympic Games. 

As it transpired, any available sleighs had 

since been rented out by Hertz prior to me 

getting there and I was to content myself 

with a bulk standard Volvo, good enough for 

anyone I thought until navigating through 

thick snow tracks on the motorway, I needed 

to understand the in-car heating system. Good 

vision with feet made of ice or warm feet and 

no vision what so ever, were the two choices I 

was presented with. The fact that three hours 

later I arrived safely and headed straight for 

a low level heater in the reception area of 

KPS’s extremely swanky offi ces, indicates 

that I settled for option one. My feet though 

will never be the same again. 

On meeting Company Director Thomas 

Andersson and Sales & Marketing Director 

Fredrik Hellner, I was given a Press Release 

which told of the remarkable breakthrough 

KPS have made into the German market, 

gaining approval for their conductive piping. 

Remarkable, because up until now, approvals 

have only been granted to companies manufacturing 

in steel, with no exceptions and the 

products produced by KPS are in polyethylene 

plastic. For the less informed like myself, I 

considered the German legislation in place 

today was purely about steel being used as 

opposed to any other material, but in fact it is 

about permeation, stating that only pipes with 

zero permeation can be used. KPS, like most 

polyethylene pipe manufacturers conform to 

EN 14125, which allows for pipe work to be 

produced permeating at a level of 0.2 percent 

grams of liquid per metre per day. Germany 

though has the most restrictive rules in Europe 

and their zero tolerance on permeation is different 

to the European standard. In practice 

this has meant that only steel pipes have been 

approved, until now that is. 

Lars Selling, CEO of KPS commented on the 

press release “The test institute has announced 

that KPS pipes gave permeation so low that 

it is considered equal to zero and we are very 

proud that our systems are the fi rst of their 

kind to pass the tough German demands on 

safety and environmental protection. We now 

look forward to offering the German market 

a competitive product which is corrosion free, 

14 

LATEST NEWS, ALTERNATIVE EVENTS, FUEL JOBS NEWS ONLINE – WWW.PETROLPLAZA.COM 

– WWW.PETROLPLAZA.COM 

by Nick Needs 

The snow behind (left to right) Fredrik, me and Thomas shows 

just how much there was. Apparently it will be there until April. 

conductive and very simple to install.” In our 

meeting Fredrik Hellner went on to say that 

the German approval acknowledges the quality 

of KPS products and it sends a message 

to other markets like Austria, Switzerland 

and Luxemburg, who have similar rules and 

a strong tradition of using steel, that there is 

an alternative solution for their piping requirements. 

This all seems a long way, as Thomas 

Andersson explained, from when he fi rst went 

to visit Dr. Kanning in the DIBT (Deutsches 

Institut für Bautechnik) over ten years ago. 

In an opening statement on their website, KPS 

state proudly that they are the only company 

in the marketplace today with complete 

dedication to the design and production of

plastic petroleum piping, mainly reference to 

the fact that unlike other manufactures, they 

do not work in the water, waste and chemical 

industries. But roots dating back to 1915 show 

that the company was manufacturing wooden 

clothes pegs between 1948 and 1965 at a rate 

of 80 million a year. It was the introduction 

of an injection moulder, designed to make 

pegs out of plastic, in 1954 which thrust the 

company into the plastic revolution. Heating, 

ventilation and plumbing components were 

followed by a more classic invention – the 

plastic screw top. Pipes fi rst appeared in 1978 

along with a change of name to Kungsörs 

Plast AB (Plast meaning plastics) and the 

company, amongst other things, was making 

fuel hoses for Saab and silencers for the aluminium 

masts on sailing boats. In 1996 the 

KPS Petrol Pipe Systems brand was created 

and a marketing organisation for selling the 

pipe system was established. 

With offices in Sweden, Malaysia, China, 

Slovakia, France, The UK and a soon to be 

opened offi ce in Spain, KPS have positioned 

themselves carefully around the world to best 

serve the markets they see as being viable 

for their products. Whilst talking about how 

well KPS is faring in the Far East and China, 

Thomas Andersson mentioned that ten years 

prior to this, the company had to decide to head 

either west towards America, where retailers 

fuel delivery and storage operates on a pressure 

system or east to Beijing, which like Europe is 

mainly suction based except for the UK and 

Spain. At the time the resources of the company 

would not allow them to enter both markets. 

Thomas says “Being ahead of the game ten years 

ago, means that in volume terms we are now a 

key company in the marketplace, being listed 

with both Petrochina and Sinopec and having 

installed over 1 500 sites with our products. The 

You cant help but notice the corridor full of certifi cates, 

approvals and memberships to industry bodies, in the KPS 

reception. 

further East you go the more steel you come 

across and China is certainly no exception, but 

it is not mandatory. The Chinese just want the 

best available solutions and I would like to point 

out that they have been very quick to adopt 

environmental friendly products.” 

Closer to home, Fredrik Hellner talked about 

European markets which of course are bread 

and butter to KPS. “The environmental awareness 

that oil companies, who have been pro 

active in putting into place protection systems 

for the last ten years and local governments, 

who have been hanging on the back of the oil 

companies shirt tails for the last four or fi ve, 

have no doubt driven the increasing marketing 

opportunities for us. I estimate that double 

wall to single wall systems are still running 

at 50 / 50 in Europe, but the need to monitor 

tanks and pipes for environmental and security 

reasons, will continue to drive people 

towards double wall. The new legislation in 

France, which requires all new installations 

to adopt double wall piping, effective from 

Nearly 1 million euros has been invested by KPS in robotic 

assembly. This brand new robot works all day without even 

a coffee break. 

KPS FEATURE 

2008, is a good example of how important 

changes in government policy represents a 

good opportunity for us. France has always 

been important for us with the good relations 

we have with Total and Exxon particularly, but 

in the last two years it has become one of our 

biggest markets.” 

Worldwide KPS have major supply contracts 

with Total Europe, Total Asia Pacifi c, 

Exxon Mobil, Q8, Petronas, OMV and Petrol, 

the leading retailer in Slovenia. With 

more than 22 000 site installations to their 

name and Atex L.O.C, EN 13463 and EN 

14125 approvals under their belt, KPS feel 

strongly that their success story is built on its 

ability to deliver good customer service and 

technical support. The simple things, as 

Thomas Andersson puts it “Installers are the 

eyes, ears, arms and legs of KPS, there is no 

doubt about that. We meet them as regularly 

as possible because we know how important 

they are to us and our customers.” Indeed 

they are. More on installers in next month’s 

issue of erpecnews. 

This seemed a good point at which to sign off 

the article, especially as I had to get back to 

Skavsta airport that night and I wanted a snow 

ball fi ght with Fredrik and Thomas before I 

left. So once I had read the car heating section 

of the car manual and after launching several 

“snöballaro’s”, I thanked my hosts, pointed south 

and headed home, driving through some of 

the most incredible scenery I had ever seen 

on the way back to the airport. I was told by 

Thomas to take a more countryside route and 

I was not disappointed. Frozen lakes stretching 

for miles made me stop by the side of the 

road to take a few photo’s, even imagining 

that Superman’s home may be built not far 

away. You have to see the fi lm! Truly amazing. 

Snow and ice as far as the eye can see dominates the landscape 

around Kungsör, at this time of the year. 

LATEST NEWS, EVENTS, JOBS ONLINE – WWW.PETROLPLAZA.COM 15

OPW 

16 LATEST NEWS, EVENTS, JOBS ONLINE – WWW.PETROLPLAZA.COM

XXX NEWS 

ALTERNATIVEFUEL NEWS 

50 electric buses run on Beijing roads 

Beijing will transform part of the existing 

petrol fi lling stations and increase the number 

of electric vehicle charging stations, making 

“integrated refuel and charge service stations” 

to provide both services. At present, the fi rst 

batch of a total of 50 pure electric buses are 

already running, while the pilot charging 

stations established for this purpose have 

also begun operation. In addition, Beijing 

Municipal Science & Technology Commission 

has begun to study how to charge electric 

vehicles like taxis and passenger cars in fi xed 

charging stations. 

Beijing has proposed two modes planned for the 

charging stations: The fi rst mode is where an 

electric vehicle enters the charging station and 

charging machines will charge an automotive 

Honda unveil next generation solar-powered 

hydrogen generating and fueling station 

Honda have unveiled an innovative approach 

to next generation fi lling stations as 

they switched on a prototype solar-powered 

hydrogen fi lling station at its Los Angeles 

Ballast Nedam builds CNG bus refuelling 

station in the Nederlands 

Dutch construction and engineering company 

Ballast Nedam has built a natural gas 

fi lling station for buses in Nijmegen. The 

station will service 75 natural gas buses 

for Novio, Nijmegen’s regional transport 

company, with high-speed refuelling time 

of 7 minutes per bus. 

Ballast Nedam has built similar gas-bus refuelling 

stations in the Nederlands at Haarlem, 

Velsen and The Hague. The gas fi lling station 

in Nijmegen is operated by CNG Net, a 

wholly owned subsidiary of Ballast Nedam, 

while management and maintenance functions 

are the responsibility of Ballast Nedam 

battery, in the same way as gas stations refuel 

their cars. The disadvantage of this mode is 

that the charging takes a long time and car 

owners need to wait in the charge station. 

Another mode is when the electric vehicles 

enters the charging station the staff will remove 

the car battery and directly replace it 

with a new fully charged battery. However, if 

this mode is adopted, charging stations would 

require large numbers of stored batteries. As 

land prices in Beijing are high, it is unlikely 

that a lot of new electric car charging stations 

could be built. Therefore, there may be 

a need for transformation of existing petrol 

fi lling stations. Some parts in the petrol fi lling 

stations may be turned into separate electric 

car charging stations. 

research centre capable of producing enough 

hydrogen during an overnight 8-hour fi ll to 

power a fuel cell electric vehicle for a typical 

day’s driving. The prototype is designed to 

fi t in the user’s garage and is signifi cantly 

more compact and 25 percent more effi cient 

than existing solar hydrogen stations. The 

hydrogen fi lling station, which employs a 

48 panel 6 kW solar array, is also smart grid 

compatible and could export excess solar 

power back to the electricity grid during 

peak daytime hours. 

Management. Nijmegen’s central positioning, 

at the crossroads of many transport routes, 

means the station has been built to be one 

of the largest in Europe. Construction and 

commissioning took just fi ve months, in time 

for the commencement of Novio’s three-year 

concession. Netherlands has within three 

years achieved a nationwide network for 

natural gas refueling. “We have over 250 

gas fi lling stations built in our country”, says 

Erik Kemink, director of CNG Net, a wholly 

owned subsidiary of Ballast Nedam. “The 

motorist can then decide whether it is the 

environmentally friendly gas drive”, he added. 

LATEST NEWS, ALTERNATIVE EVENTS, JOBS FUEL NEWS ONLINE – WWW.PETROLPLAZA.COM 

– WWW.PETROLPLAZA.COM 

Shell – Cosan joint 

venture announced 

Royal Dutch Shell plans to make the biggestever 

foray into biofuels by an oil major, striking 

a deal with Brazil’s Cosan to form a US $ 12 

billion ethanol joint venture that will be the 

No. 3 fuel distributor in Latin America’s 

largest country. The deal, announced last 

month, marks Shell’s entry into ethanol 

production and follows moves by British oil 

company BP, which in 2008 took a stake in 

a big Brazilian biofuel project and unveiled 

US $ 1 billion in investments. The 50 – 50 

joint venture, with almost 4 500 fi lling stations 

nationwide, will better position Cosan 

and Shell to compete with the two top players 

in the market, state oil giant Petrobras 

and Ipiranga, a unit of Brazil’s Grupo Ultra. 

In the transaction, Cosan will transfer its 

sugar, ethanol, fuel distribution and energy 

generation business to the venture, with assets 

valued at US $ 4.93 billion and debt of 

US $ 2.52 billion. Cosan fi rst branched out 

into the fuel distribution business in 2008 

when it acquired U.S.-based ExxonMobil 

Corp’s Esso chain of service stations for 

nearly US $ 1 billion. Cosan also agreed in 

December to buy a local chain of fi lling stations 

called Petrosul for an undisclosed sum. 

Green energy 

obstacle in Romania 

Investments worth 100s of million Euro in 

Romania’s renewable energy sector have been 

postponed for more than two years due to unstable 

legislation. But there are signs that the 

regulatory framework that investors have been 

waiting for will be in place by mid-2010. Unclear 

laws have prevented banks from funding green 

energy projects, holding up the sector from 

development. Once, one of the most attractive 

markets for wind farms in East Europe, Romania 

has recently been abandoned for Bulgaria, 

Hungary and Poland. 

17

‘TANKS FOR THE MEMORIES‘ – ZCL 

18 

‘ ‘ Tanks Tanks for the the memories memories ’ ’ 

Gas stations in the US have had twenty years 

to do something about it, but thousands of 

retailers chose to turn a deaf ear. Now many 

are facing closure as they face up to the reality 

of having to install double walled fuel 

storage tanks or go out of business. The 2005 

Energy Policy Act states that every operator 

in the US must upgrade from single wall to 

double wall by the end of 2009, except oddly 

those retailers in Kansas and Missouri. In 

last month’s issue of erpecnews we carried a 

story concerning the problems being faced by 

operators in Florida, where hundreds of gas 

stations are closing down because they have 

not upgraded their facilities, in a state where 

it is estimated that 1 000 sites are in the same 

situation. To carry out the necessary work, 

some retailers are faced with costs amounting 

to hundreds of thousands of dollars and as one 

observer said recently “You can’t advertise to 

the public that you have double walled tanks 

and your competitor doesn’t, in the hope that 

the consumer may pay an extra two cents on 

a gallon of fuel”. As the major oil companies 

pull out of main stream retailing this again 

has not helped the situation. Whilst stations 

may still be branded, many are now operated 

by independent marketers who have differing 

levels of education concerning tank leakage. 

So where did it all go wrong, what are we now 

doing right and how did we get here? I asked 

erpec delegate Ron Koch, who is Vice President 

of International Business Development for 

liquid storage systems company ZCL Composites 

Inc. to chart the development of the fuel 

tank and to bring us up to date with today’s 

solutions through his eyes, which in Ron’s case 

have been around the world a good many times. 

“In today’s world, the responsibilities and liabilities, 

of handling, storing and distributing of 

hazardous liquids has become an area of immense 

concern for many reasons, the least of 

which being the monetary value of the product. 

The changes to piping, monitoring equipment, 

spill containment vessels and data collection 

mechanisms for product control have been 

quite remarkable over the past two decades 

and should you have believed that a storage 

tank was just a product container, which did 

not warrant some serious decision making, 

then you really need to re-consider making 

that particular decision. 

Generally, the fi rst decision which tank owners 

should be faced with is aboveground, or 

belowground? Provided the correct underground 

tank is selected and installed correctly, this 

LATEST NEWS, LATEST EVENTS, NEWS, JOBS EVENTS, ONLINE JOBS – WWW.PETROLPLAZA.COM 

ONLINE – WWW.PETROLPLAZA.COM 

by Nick Needs & Ron Koch 

decision is quite simple, as an aboveground 

tank will always present more challenges than 

an underground one, taking up valuable space 

on a site, whilst providing a potential obstruction 

for traffi c and being vulnerable to fi re, fl oods, 

hurricanes and of course, vandalism, arson 

and even terrorism. Furthermore, it will be 

subjected to ranging temperatures and operators 

should give serious consideration to potential 

product loss through evaporation. Facing these 

concerns, however, it does not mean that an 

underground tank is the perfect solution and 

without challenges. 

On the surface, all storage tanks appear to be 

equal, however, when we dig deeper or belowground 

in this case, storage tanks take on a 

completely different character. The challenges 

or opportunities as we see them, to educate an 

end-user of liquid storage tanks which shall 

be placed out of sight and out of mind, is so 

gratifying when you know that, in essence, as 

a manufacturer and supplier, we provide peace 

of mind to both the customer and to ourselves, 

both now and into the future. 

Due to sensitive awareness of environmental 

concerns, the present value of cargoes being 

stored, the cost of disruptive tank replacements 

and potential lawsuits, should make any end-

user of liquid storage tanks acutely conscious 

of how important it is to make the right decision, 

particularly in the type of tank selection. 

Decades ago, single skin steel tanks were the 

order of the day, because in those times the 

notion that oil, having being extracted from 

the ground, was not a big deal should it leak 

back into the ground and coupled with the 

inexpensive cost of the product, this did not 

represent any major issue for most people. 

Today, this attitude and awareness has changed 

dramatically with education, experience and 

the increased value of the cargo being stored, 

however, there is still a great level of ignorance 

when approaching the subject of fuel 

storage tank selection. With the single skin 

steel tanks of many years ago, operators and 

owners eventually understood that bare steel 

reverts to its natural element and, accordingly, 

the unprotected steel tank would rust to the 

point of leaking. 

This physical change, being accelerated by the 

surrounding water content and ph value of the 

backfi lled soil, amongst other things, required 

some innovative protection and having learned 

that bitumen and tar provide a barrier to corrosion, 

the sensible thing, at the time, was to protect 

the exterior of the steel tank with a coating of 

this corrosion barrier; however, the steel tanks 

were still rusting. We were also learning, back 

then, that poorly installed tanks were victims of 

other causes of corrosion. Steel tanks, coming 

into contact with foreign materials, were being 

subjected to galvanic action, allowing corrosion 

to set in and something far more sinister, stray 

electrical currents in the ground, whether naturally 

present, or generated from surrounding 

electrifi cation sources, would turn a steel tank 

into a sacrifi cial anode, causing it to corrode. 

Expensive cathodic protection, provided it was 

well maintained and serviced, would address 

this degradation by electrolysis , however, a 

different approach was necessary to combat 

all the steel tanks’ collective corrosive enemies. 

At this time, polymers had already been inven- 

A similar tank to the one on the right, having had a Pheonix lining system applied. 

ted and proven and it was not long before steel 

tank designers had determined that a perfect 

solution to combat any form of external corrosion, 

was to wrap the exterior of the tank 

in some form of plastic. In fact, should this 

outer protection be manufactured in a reinforced 

fi breglass, this outer shell, providing 

it be manufactured correctly, would provide 

a monitor-able interstitial space, which the 

environmentalists were rapidly insisting upon. 

Ron Ron Koch, Koch, Vice Vice President President International International 

Business Business Development, Development, ZCL ZCL Composites Composites 

And so, the jacketed tank was created and 

we would all live happily ever after. Not quite 

so – despite the fact that the Industry had apparently 

addressed all the obvious elements of 

corrosion, there was and still is, evidence of 

these jacketed tanks corroding. How could we 

believe that the unprotected interior of a steel 

tank would not corrode, after we had already 

determined that this conductive material is the 

subject of varying forms of corrosion? 

Exposed to condensation, caused by, amongst 

other things, the changing temperatures of the 

products being delivered and, more pertinently, 

the variety of cocktails in today’ products being 

stored, ranging from alcohol blends to bio 

products, the interior of these steel tanks are 

subjected to a further compromise – Microbial 

Induced Corrosion (MIC); something which 

has always existed, however, which seems to 

have avoided much attention, that is, until 

fairly recently. 

So, how is this matter being addressed? After 

proving itself in the protection of steel tank 

‘TANKS FOR THE MEMORIES‘ – ZCL 

exteriors, many owners are now acknowledging 

the non-corrosive properties of inorganic 

materials and lining the interior of their tanks 

with reinforced fi breglass liners; more particularly, 

double walled lining systems which are 

completely monitor-able, warranted, compatible 

with all fuels and installed with minimum 

site disruption. It is somewhat ironic, however, 

that some owners would still consider an unprotected 

steel tank, given the lessons which 

we all should have learned from the past and 

particularly when reinforced fi breglass has 

proven itself to be the optimum material for 

both interior and exterior applications for fuel 

storage tanks of fuel. 

Of course today, installing a completely noncorrosive, 

double walled fi breglass tank, in the 

fi rst place, should be the preferred option for 

underground tank owners, whereas the warranted 

double walled fi breglass liner is a very 

good option for existing buried steel tanks, 

particularly as it carries the same warranty 

as a new fi breglass tank – which is 30 years. 

Double walled fi breglass fuel tanks and its 

partner product, the double walled fi breglass 

liner, are being used in many regions of the 

Globe, both extensively and exclusively, by 

many of the major multi-national oil companies. 

Fibreglass tanks were born of the space age 

and the same composite sandwich construction 

design used in the aeronautical and space 

industry, has been used in the manufacture 

of Parabeam tanks for many years. The latest 

Boeing Dreamliner 787 is a testament to 

the credibility and confi dence, of composite 

sandwich construction and ZCL prides itself in 

manufacturing to this same method of design. 

ZCL and its global network of manufacturers 

are committed to being the leader in liquid 

storage systems by offering storage tanks, 

which will simply not rust and systems which 

deliver superior design, effi ciency and value, 

to customers anywhere in the World.” 

More details www.zcl.com 

A picture of a very rusty steel tank showing major signs of corrosion. 


19

2020 VISION – CIRCLE DESIGN 

20 

2020 2020 vision vision - The The future future of filling filling stations 

stations 

Forty years ago the petrol fi lling station was 

an iconic landmark. Post-war romantic visions 

of space age architecture or beautiful 

machinery were played out on the forecourts 

of America and to a lesser extent, Europe. 

Even the humble village garage had a certain 

charm, offering a range of useful services and a 

personal touch. But today these former glories 

have been replaced by a bland generic format, 

distinguished only by the colour of the sign 

and the operator of the shop. Other than the 

automatic carwash, virtually nothing remains 

of service and fi lling the car is down to us. 

Of course some retailers are better than others 

and many of the major oil companies have 

re-branded to try and differentiate themselves 

from the dreary norm. In the main, however, 

blandness prevails. The significant trend 

over the past decade has been for oil majors 

to relinquish their grip on retail sites, focusing 

on franchising the forecourt operation 

to independent retailers and the shop offer 

to the better-known grocery brands. Some 

would argue that it is exactly this change of 

operational model that has led to the decline 

in site standards such as cleanliness and 

customer service. 

At the same time, the supermarkets have taken 

a signifi cant segment of the market by offering 

cheap fuel to cost-conscious customers and 

combining it with essential grocery shopping. 

The reason is simple. Whilst almost every 

other retail experience, from the bank to the 

supermarket, has been revolutionised, petrol 

fi lling stations remain untouched. Shopping 

for fuel is one of the few experiences termed a 

‘distress purchase’. Amazingly, it is still quite 

normal to have dirty lavatories, unappetising 

food and uninspiring shops. We now even have 

to pay to fi ll our tyres with air! 

So what is the future of the fi lling station? There 

are two major factors that will force a reassessment 

of how fi lling stations are operated, used 

and branded: the demand for alternative energy 

and the desire for service. 

Refuel, recharge, refresh 

As a planet we now consume 1 billion barrels 

of oil every 12 days and at projected rates of 

consumption, oil will cease to be an economic 

primary energy source by 2042. The message to 

oil producers from Barack Obama: we need to 

wean ourselves off oil and create a new energy 

industry. Alternative fuels will creep into use over 

the coming decades as soon as they are viable in 

the west, although developing markets such as 

India and China will remain heavy users of oil. 

Ultimately, however, oil will become so costly 

that it will be priced out of the market. The 

alternative fuels will have an effect on where 

and when we fi ll up. Given that vehicles will run 

on a mix of fuels – electricity, natural gas / cng, 

petrol, diesel or hydrogen – fuel retailers and 

oil companies will need to devise new strategies 

to use their real estate. 

Their geographical reach will always give the oil 

companies advantages over the supermarkets in 

supplying liquid and gas fuels. However, electric 

vehicles may simply be able to recharge at home 

or at battery replacement depots. Indeed, future 

vehicles may even generate their own power. 

Given what looks like an increasingly unattractive 

commercial model for the oil companies 

and refi ners, new energy brands will emerge 

that use the forecourt as an opportunity to 

offer something different – a range of services 

that remove the ‘distress purchase’ stigma and 

make the experience an enjoyable one where 

fuelling is just part of the mix. Traditional oil 

companies will either divest completely or devise 


by Robert Onion, Circle Design 

Fuel retailers may be fi ghting price wars now, but the real battle lies elsewhere. Circle’s petrol retail guru 

Robert Onion looks forward to a return to service – and to pleasure. 

new economic models for their sites, for example 

renting space to a range of energy suppliers and 

leisure retailers. 

A return to service 

The oil majors have spent the past century reassuring 

their customers that they have high quality 

reliable products – ‘You can be sure of Shell’. It 

appears, however, that this promise no longer 

counts for many customers, especially younger 

drivers between the ages of 18 and 29. New research 

from the US suggests that these younger 

drivers show little loyalty towards particular oil 

company brands. They have perhaps realised that 

in developed markets there is little or no difference 

between fuel quality and that retailers often share 

product from the same refi nery. 

In addition, changes in the way that fuel is retailed 

mean that there is little or no reason to be 

loyal, since customers often fi ll up without even 

entering the sales building. Many customers in 

the US are now selecting fi lling stations merely 

on price and fuel is rapidly becoming a commodity 

product, chosen much in the same way as a 

domestic gas supplier. 

In the UK, paradoxically, price may not be such 

an important a factor in many customers’ minds 

– in a recent informal survey, over 70 percent of 

customers questioned immediately after paying 

for fuel did not know how much they had paid 

per litre. Given that product price is used by oil 

companies and independent retailers as a key 

differentiator, perhaps it’s time for a rethink. 

Real differentiators will make a genuine improvement 

to our overall experience – things like 

excellent customer service, cleanliness and an 

interesting and rewarding range of services on site. 

How about a return to attended service (at a small 

premium perhaps?) or having your screen cleaned 

at no extra cost? How about service with a smile.


21

WEBSITES AND LOGOS 

22 

Websites Websites and and Logos Logos 

www.air-serv.eu 

www.alucobond.com 

www.alcoa.com 

www.aspentech.com 

www.atosworldline.com 

www.bennettpump.com 

www.bennett-sauser.ch 

www.beverinnovations.com 

www.brugg.de 

www.ceccato.it 

TM 

www.dresserwayne.com 

www.erst-technology.com 

www.eurotank.eu.com 

www.fafnir.com 

www.fi brelite.com 

www.franklinfueling.com 

www.gilbarco.com & www.veeder.com 

www.global-msi.com 

www.graphiteuk.com 

www.hectronic.com 


www.iisltd.com 

www.istobal.com 

www.kpsystem.com 

www.kubald.com 

81747656457419037438476757647298798719 

83712897398748934738975613683947984739 

57594875109348847387656416474987549879 

87349237491873498734875768719387498478 

29472461762378468476784947823401781010 

00797311448507834343732987134098109837 

45623847389470918309819031239085847548 

71908109831434757874587198473487438756 

34871111101018934789743970197847373472 

38745739478190741012983718973982737889 

45456571973897109791731280739873489747 

89101080191398713710789301937109787783 

48723471010189371037848738529378419879 

81734658347873847101910928302378781873 

21897319873872372783872190810398475763 

46189723987381927310938709837187373781 

www.kssg.com 

www.mepsan.com.tr 

www.mueller-offenburg.de 

www.nupigeco.com 

www.ono-oil.com

www.opw-fce.com 

www.petrotec.eu 

protecting your liquid assets 

www.petrotechnik.com 

www.planova.com 

www.psdcodax.com 

www.ruudlighting.net & www.ruudled.net 

www.scheidt-bachmann.com 

www.secu-tech.at 


WEBSITES AND LOGOS 

www.stc-norway.com 

www.tebodin.com 

www.tokheim.com 

www.washtec.de 

If you have not yet sent us your logo and website address, please do so for the next issue by mailing editor@erpecnews.com 

23

erpecnews No 18_2010_asia_4.indd

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?