Decarbonising shipping
Paul Hickin from S&P Global Platts looks at how shipping can meet decarbonisation targets Shipping’s efforts to meet decarbonisation targets will be both extremely easy and very tough. Near-term regulations look achievable while potentially shifting 2050 limits look more like ambitions than credible goals. Shipping will have to balance these competing challenges. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) agreed in its initial greenhouse strategy 2018 to reduce the carbon intensity in the global fleet by 40% in comparison to 2008 levels by 2030 and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2050. There had been talk that the IMO would […]
The changing face of liquid fuels supply
Francis Osborne from Argus Media examines government regulations, supply chain changes and emerging fuel options As unusual and catastrophic weather events increase in frequency the issue of climate change is rapidly rising up the global political agenda. The recent COP26 meeting in Glasgow may have demonstrated that the global community is still a long way from forging a collective approach but there is no denying that Europe is now well embarked on a pathway that will lead to a significant reduction in carbon emissions. Companies involved in the handling and storage of transport and other fuels must ready themselves for […]
Reimagining a terminals business
Exolum’s Andres Suárez looks back on a year of change for the company formerly known as CLH Group On 1 March 2021 , CLH Group, the leading terminal company in Europe, with operations in eight countries, announced a major rebrand, transforming itself into Exolum. The focus of the newly renamed business, as it said at the time, is on ‘adapting its business to decarbonisation and the energy transition, the digitalisation of its activities and the fight against climate change.’ As the end of 2021 approaches, Tank Storage Magazine spoke to Andres Suárez, global strategy & innovation lead and Exolum Ventures […]
Navigating to a sustainable future
Jason Hornsby tells Tank Storage Magazine about Navigator Terminals’ push towards sustainable product logistics Sustainability is not a new concept for UK tank storage and energy infrastructure company Navigator Terminals. With the recent focus on the energy transition, the COP26 conference and ever-more stringent climate targets, companies and industries the world over are looking at how to prepare for a future with less oil in it. In the tank storage world, much of the talk has been around biofuels, sustainable chemicals, and the potential fuels of the future, such as hydrogen and ammonia. Navigator has been serving these markets for […]
Preparing for the evolution of energy
Angie Murray and Carrie Weaver from Enterprise Products Partners tell Tank Storage Magazine about the company’s new focus on evolving technologies for a lower carbon economy Over the past year or two there has been an increasing interest in the energy transition and the future lower carbon economy from companies connected to the oil industry. Tank storage and midstream companies are no exception. Enterprise Products Partners, based in Houston, Texas, US, owns over 80,000 km of natural gas, natural gas liquids (NGL), crude oil, refined products and petrochemical pipelines, 260 million bbl of NGL, petrochemical, refined products and crude oil […]
The storage outlook
Nine leading tank storage experts have all made their predictions for the storage & transportation market for 2022: Rutger van Thiel, CEO, Alkion Terminals 2021 was another successful year for the Alkion Group in a challenging and changing environment. The pandemic continued to demand our vigilance, but we continued to show solid performance in terms of safety, sustainability and financially. Formed just five years ago the Alkion Group has shown itself again to be a resilient business. PANDEMIC EFFECTS Alkion’s nine terminals are located across five major European economies and integrated into numerous local, regional and national supply chains and markets […]
CRUNCH TIME
US shale drillers keep their powder dry for now, but it remains unclear how they’ll respond in 2022 as the declines in drilled but uncompleted wells (DUCs) and inventories come to bear, says Johannes Van Der Tuin Increasing global oil demand has started to revive US hydrocarbon production, but any recovery is nascent at best and – as with other areas of the global economy – the pandemic accelerated trends within the US shale patch that had already been at work prior to 2020. As the latest round of US earnings calls highlighted, management teams and investors remain focussed squarely […]
ILTA ADOPTS – AND ACTS ON – ESG PRINCIPLES
Kathryn Clay, president of the International Liquid Terminals Association (ILTA) looks at new ESG principles and the impacts of fire-fighting foam regulatory changes in the US As the terminal industry’s leading advocate in the US, the International Liquid Terminal Association (ILTA) is focussed on building a strong brand in Washington as we expand our advocacy efforts. Since the Biden Administration’s arrival earlier this year, ILTA has gone to work to educate new political appointees and career officials charged with regulating our industry. We have helped them to understand the challenges facing our industry and the opportunities for terminals to be […]
THE OUTLOOK FOR OIL STORAGE IN A LOWER-CARBON ECONOMY
Columbia University’s Antoine Halff examines the effect of changing policies under the Biden administration Joe Biden’s election to the US presidency in 2020 has ushered in a period of renewed momentum for climate policy both in Washington and beyond. In a U-turn from Donald Trump’s climate scepticism and rejection of the Paris Accord, President Biden from his first day in office has embraced a bold climate agenda, vowing to pursue an all-of-government approach to combatting climate change. Countries and companies around the world have greeted Washington’s return to the Paris fold with a flurry of net zero targets and bold […]
FROM LASERS TO TANKS
Kathryn Clay explains how a love of energy policy led her to the top of ILTA Dr Kathryn Clay is the president of the International Liquid Terminals Association (ILTA), which aims to provide a voice for the liquid terminal industry. Its terminal members come from worldwide, and includes those storing crude oil, petroleum products, asphalt, chemicals, ethanol, biodiesel, vegetable oils, molasses and fertilisers. Companies supplying the industry can also join the association. Clay joined ILTA in 2018, having applied for the position of president in 2017, seeing it as a good opportunity to take a leadership role in an organisation. […]
BRANCHING OUT INTO RENEWABLES
US industry infrastructure and supply chain services company Savage continues to grow and diversify after 75 years in business savage, based in Salt Lake City, US, is a global provider of industry infrastructure and supply chain services, and this year celebrates 75 years in business. With nearly 4,500 team members in over 200 operating locations, the privately held company has steadily grown over the years to become a leading provider of transportation, logistics, materials handling, engineering and construction services across North America. BEGINNINGS AND SERVICES A family-owned, professionally managed business, Savage had humble beginnings, starting in rural American Fork, […]
US OIL PRICES TIED TO TWO GIANTS: OPEC+, COVID-19
Paul Wiseman looks at what’s driving the latest trends As with any commodity, oil prices are ruled by two sides of the coin – supply and demand. Energy experts agree that production decisions by OPEC+ are the most important supply side influences, while COVID-19 and concerns about possible variant-induced shutdowns heavily influence demand. In its August Short Term Energy Outlook, the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated OPEC+ production would average 33.0 million bpd for the second half of 2021. The most recent OPEC+ agreement called for production to rise each month by 400,000 bpd until previous cuts are fully […]
CURBING THE COMPETITION: MEXICO’S FUEL IMPORT CHANGES
Eduardo Lopez looks at the implications for importers Upon gaining power in 2018, the administration of Mexican president López Obrador launched a vociferous and strident rhetorical war against the private sector, most notably in the energy industry. The president’s ire has been directed mainly at Mexico’s energy opening, made possible in December 2013 by a long-awaited yet long-delayed constitutional reform. A salient feature of this reform was to impose a modicum of competition on the former state-owned monopolies (Pemex in the oil industry and CFE in electricity) through so-called ‘regulatory asymmetry’, which forced both companies to relinquish some of their […]
BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE
Max Midstream CEO Todd Edwards tells Tank Storage Magazine about plans to turn the Port of Calhoun into a rival for Houston and Corpus Christi, and the sustainable focus The Texan ports of Corpus Christi and Houston are hugely important for the export of many US products, but they are increasingly congested. Both are in built-up areas, so expanding to deal with the shipping traffic is difficult at best and impossible in most cases. In 2015, the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Calhoun Port Authority realised that the port at Point Comfort needed to be expanded. In 2020, […]
THE COST OF NATURAL DISASTERS
Philip Myers and Earl Crochet run through the latest updates coming to API 656 – Aboveground storage tank operations during uncontrollable natural disasters during the first six months of 2021, there have been eight separate billion-dollar weather and climate disaster events across the US. The eye-opening plot in Figure 1 shows the magnitude of problems associated with natural disaster events, referred to as ‘natech’, which means ‘natural hazard-triggered technological event’. Natechs can occur any time natural disasters interact with petroleum or chemical storage facilities and their local associated societal infrastructure. A recent stretch of extreme cold weather in Texas was […]
TANK ALARM MONITORING TO KEEP KENYA FUELLED
Ian Loudon from tank monitoring alarm specialist Omniflex looks at how alarm systems are used for managing tank overfill conditions. If not monitored correctly, loss of containment from a tank or storage vessel could pose a serious safety risk to people or the environment. This is why Burhani Engineers, the company installing overfill protection systems in the largest tank storage facility in Mombasa, Kenya, needed reliable, high level alarm instrumentation to help protect critical assets. Having the right alarm system ensures safety in a tank facility. The UK’s Major Incident Investigation Board report into the Buncefield fire in 2005 concluded […]
PHYSICAL SECURITY IN THE BLIND SPOT
Security professional Duane Jones on the importance of ensuring that physical and cyber security complement each other. The proliferation of cyber threats against critical infrastructure, such as the ransomware attack against Colonial Pipeline in May 2021, will continue to require added attention, resources, and proactive strategies in lieu of reactive ones. While the cyber threats are quite real against virtually all type of industry, critical infrastructure is an obvious high-value target for numerous threat vectors. However, with the majority of attention now focused on cyber elements, companies must ensure they do not position their physical security programme in the blind […]
MICROBIOLOGICAL CONTAMINATION – REDUCING RISK IN A PANDEMIC
Mark Busch at Conidia Bioscience looks at how single use immunoassay fuel test kits can help. Microbiological contamination (fungi and bacteria in fuel) is a serious risk to tank storage operations, especially if fuel turnover is lower. However, there are some fast, economical steps that can be taken to prevent unnecessary costs and risks to business. ORGANIC MATERIALS Like a piece of bread, fuel is an organic substance. Also like a piece of bread, fuel can go mouldy. Mould, along with yeast, is a form of fungus and grows over time. The longer it is stored, therefore, the greater […]
HELPING FUEL OIL DISTRIBUTORS TO IMPROVE PROFITABILITY
Nick Hawkins from Kingspan on why companies shouldn’t miss out on new tank telemetry technology. Tank telemetry has undoubtedly been one of the great advances for the fuel and oil storage sector in the last 10 years. Many millions of the basic, first-generation, devices have so far been installed across the globe as customers take advantage of a gauge that allows them to check their supplies from the comfort of their own home or office. But that’s far from the end of the story. New, smart, connected devices are underpinning improved, distributor business models, and they can help distributors meet […]
W ENERGY SOFTWARE TRANSFORMS PHILLIPS 66 OPERATIONS
Michael Ferrante from W Energy Software discusses digital oilfield advancements in tank storage accounting and measurement Amidst the digital oilfield, paper tickets, paper invoices, even faxes continue to be part and parcel of many terminal operations. Digital systems tend to be built with older, legacy technology, create data silos, and are inflexible and difficult to use. The result is a mixed bag of commercial products, internally developed solutions, and disconnected workflows for invoicing, scheduling, inventory, balancing, and regulatory reporting. Manual processes and a fragmented information landscape persist at a time when terminal operators need a single view of complex supply […]
STREAMLINING TANK INSPECTIONS WITH VISUAL FEEDBACK
Optically activated pigments highlight areas in need of repair, explain Justin Hair and Michael Harrison from Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine. For aboveground petroleum storage tank owners, 10-year inspection intervals often present some challenges. Inspections are necessary to ensure owner compliance, tank integrity and safety, but they also carry a high cost – sometimes upwards of US$500,000 (€424,000). The longer a tank is out of service for repairs, inspections and lining applications, the higher the cost due to lost storage capacity. The ongoing cost of ensuring tank integrity is unavoidable. Most often, the American Petroleum Institute’s API 653 standard (Tank Inspection, […]
LIGHTNING RISK MITIGATION – MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE
Dr Akihiro Wakabayashi, CTO of Critical Facility Group, looks at why tank fires and explosions are still happening and what can be done to reduce the risk one of the biggest risks to external floating roof tanks (EFRT) is the exposure to potential tank rim fires and explosions. The occurrence of such incidents happens on a yearly basis in facilities around the world and causes significant impact on environmental damages, interruption to operation, business losses and in some cases severe injuries and loss of lives. A major cause of these tank fire and explosion incidents is lightning – one of […]
RANSOMWARE AND INDUSTRIAL CONTROL SYSTEMS
Chris van den Hooven from Hudson Cybertec explains how organisations can protect themselves against ransomware attacks On 7 May 2021 a ransomware attack took down the Colonial Pipeline infrastructure. Ransomware is a form of malicious software designed to encrypt files on a device, rendering any files and the computer systems that rely on them unusable. Attackers then demand ransom in exchange for decryption. In the case of Colonial Pipeline the attackers demanded a ransom of about US$5 million (€4.3 million). The impact of the attack on the largest gasoline pipeline in the US was enormous. Colonial had to shut down […]
FASTER THAN EVER
Tank Storage Award winner Toptech Systems explains what it can offer to the whole petroleum supply chain In recent years, Toptech Systems has grown from being a solutions provider for terminal owners, to being a solutions provider for the entire supply chain (terminal owner, supplier, customer, carrier, and driver). Toptech has done this by expanding and improving its suite of products to provide unique benefits that reach beyond the terminal owner, offering key advantages to other stakeholders as well. With a reputation built over the last 33 years as one of the most innovative, reliable companies in the industry, it […]
THE BROAD CONSEQUENCES OF A SPILL
Adler and Allan’s Mike Prendergast and Burges Salmon’s Simon Tilling outline the legal and other implications of a spill and the importance of having an adequate emergency response plan in place Site operators should be aware of the legal, as well as practical implications of a spill. Environmental and health and safety law imposes certain duties on site operators which, if not complied with, can result in legal proceedings, fines and reputational damage. In addition to the time and expense involved in containing and cleaning up a spill, a spill into the environment can have a number of legal implications. […]
CENTRALISING ASSET DATA MANAGEMENT IN THE PROCESS INDUSTRY
CEA software can track, manage and visualise all integrated data sources The process industry is waking up to the heightened importance data plays in reducing costs, maximising the value of assets, and increasing the competitive advantage in the market. As the industry continues to grow, so do the number of assets and the data associated with them. Managing asset data improves the possibility to make data driven decisions and be in full control of asset performance and movement. Over the years, there has been an increased shift towards centralising data management. More organisations are initiating this digital transformation journey to […]
THE ROUTE TO INCLUSION IS NOT EXCLUSION
Allison Newell explains the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the tools and approaches needed for a truly diverse workplace DR Allison Newell is an environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) consultant with her own consultancy ESGenuine. She works with a number of tank terminal companies, and others, helping them to improve their corporate social responsibility programmes. ‘I give advice on all seven major facets of non-financial CSR and CSR reporting options but I have a real particular passion for health and safety. I believe that a safe and healthy work environment is a fundamental right of every employee. […]
ASIA TO REMAIN A GROWING SINK FOR THE CRUDE MARKET
FGE’s Grayson Lim reports on the trends in Asia’s crude markets The rapid economic development in Asia has resulted in strong oil demand growth in recent decades. In tandem with this, close to 13.3 million bpd of refining capacity was added during 2010-2020. Despite the current subdued state of refining business largely due to the COVID-19 crisis, around 3.1 million bpd of refining capacity is expected to come on stream in Asia by 2025. Most of these projects started construction before the onset of the pandemic. China has been leading the refining capacity growth in Asia and will continue doing […]
COVID-19 IN CHINA – ONE YEAR ON
China’s economy weathered the COVID-19 storm but there are still pressures to face China’s bounceback from the pandemic shocks of early 2020 was one of the few economic success stories of last year. This year, however, the world’s second largest economy has rattled global financial markets as long-running worries about the huge debts amassed by its commercial sector crystallised around the woes of Evergrande, the cash-strapped Chinese property giant. It became clear in recent months that the Shenzen-headquartered conglomerate would struggle to meet deadlines on bond interest payments totalling tens of millions of dollars. With some analysts estimating that China’s […]
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE MEETS GLOBAL PARTNERS
Stolthaven Terminals president Guy Bessant tells Tank Storage Magazine about the company’s planned new terminal with Revivegen in Taiwan Stolthaven Terminals recently announced that it has signed a letter of intent with Taiwanese company Revivegen Environmental Technology to build a greenfield terminal in Kaohsiung Port, Taiwan. The terminal will mostly handle and store petrochemicals and industrial gases for Taiwan’s large industrial sector. Stolt-Nielsen, Stolthaven’s parent company, has had a presence in Taiwan since the early 1990s, on the shipping (Stolt Tankers) and isotank (Stolt Tank Containers) side of things, but does not have a terminal in the country. Tank Storage […]
A LONG-TERM VISION FOR INDIA
Vopak India managing director Deepak Dalvi discusses the company’s partnership with Aegis Logistics for LPG in India Vopak has been active in India since 2011, when it bought CRL Terminals at Kandla Port in Gujarat from a local operator, seeing the potential of the growing Indian market. The company owns two terminal sites in the country, a chemical terminal and a vegetable oils terminal, with a total capacity of 243,000 m3. Vopak is now a leading terminal services supplier in Gujarat, having invested steadily in the terminals since acquiring them. The terminals are well-connected to jetties and equipped to handle […]
Adapt to thrive
Kees Oerlemans from nVent explains how smart electric heat tracing systems and innovative tank insulation are helping tank farm owners react to changing demand Seismic change is on the horizon for the chemical storage sector. For many years, the industry has relied on oil production as its main source of new investment streams. In 2020, however, this well-established trend was challenged. As a result of the pandemic, worldwide oil production dropped from 100 million bpd to 88 million bpd – a downturn felt even more keenly by the US market, which fell by a staggering 20%1. While both demand and […]
