Check Contractors Insurance before allowing them to commence any work
We have experienced cases of claims being paid under a Retailers Insurance when an injury has been incurred owing clearly due to the negligence of a contractor. An example of such an incident was where a Building Contractor was engaged by the owner/operator of a Retail Service Station to carry out some maintenance/repair/upgrade on their forecourt.
A customer climbing from his car stepped on a nail protruding from a piece of timber which the Contractor had mistakenly failed to pick/clear up upon completion of their work for the day.
Whilst the Contractor had verbally confirmed that his “Insurance was in order”, he later admitted, (when a formal claim was served), that he had failed to renew and so had no Insurance.
Owing to what is commonly referred to as the “One Per Cent Rule”, the case was served upon the Retail Operator and the claim subsequently paid under their Shop Insurance.
This rule was established with the intention of protecting injury victims where the negligent party in uninsured and a Judge finds that another party has a 1% contribution toward the negligence. In this case 1% was determined owing to the fact that the Retailer had failed to obtain proof of Insurance from the Contractor.
Before engaging ANY contractor(s), insist upon the Contractor forwarding written confirmation of their current valid Insurance to your Insurance provider.
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It never ceases to amaze how there is a disconnect by the international organisations reagarding crude prices and the world economies.
We are in a Pandemic which is affecting every country in the world negatively and slowing growth and economic development yet the likes of OPEC have forced up prices which are starting to cripple thrid world countries and indeed negatively affecting the second and first world economies too.
Aramco have announced Record Profits from oil trading which is a clear indication of the simplest of fundamentals of life. Greed will be the death of us all.
The current price hikes are NOT sustainable long term
Maybe some one will get that message through however, like the Trump declaration that Global warming was a hoax (?????) it is unlikely that anyone will actually take note and stop the growth of avarisious profit taking from dire economic straits
The charge to electric transport will be accelerated but that is economically forced rather than ecologically driven
Where will it end
It appears that there is disunity among the oil producers on production levels and pricing. The recent major increases are encouraging more greed. The effect on world economies in the middle of a pandemic is startling and unwarranted.
While the increases will undoubtedly drive more people to the ECO lobby ,no bad thing, the reality is that third world economies are already struggling under the Covid 19 knock on affect.
Not good to see this level of greed being demonstrated by the controllers of oil production and price!!
Admin
Is there anything that I can do to prevent my premium from increasing?
There are many actions with little or no cost that can be done.
29th June 2021
Remember importance of reading your Policy Documentation
As you know well by now, we have always tried to draw as much of the so-called small print of Insurance Policy wording to your attention and we thought we should highlight what we honestly believe to be a very positive wording that has come to our attention that we will share with you as follows:
“It is a condition of Your Policy that a documented spills and clean up procedure is in force at all times.”
You have heard this advice from the service numerous times at this stage. If we were to hand-pick what we truly believe is the most important action to take in avoidance of liability insurance claims, then this is it.
Have a documented regular/frequent recorded floor check in place in a genuine effort to prevent the most frequent and costly of any Insurance claims of all.
And remember, those of you who are, or have been customers will have read the following paragraph countless times from us over the years:
In the event of a claim you will be deemed to have read and understood your Policy Documentation in it’s entirety.
If you need advice, call us.
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16th June 2021
Some very positive feedback
We want to take this opportunity to share our genuine delight with a Retail customer who for a second time recently dealt with a situation involving a customer falling to the floor having slipped and fallen.
The retailer called and spoke with us following the incident as he had done following a previous similar incident. They shared a copy of their CCTV footage and we agreed that if a formal claim were to follow, we had no defence.
In such circumstances for us to give our opinion on the nature or extent of injury, if any, is pointless as only a suitably qualified medical practitioner’s assessment will ever be taken into account.
The victim of the accident although not well, is somewhat known to the retailer. After our discussion the retailer made contact by phone expressing concern for their well-being and informing them that a gift voucher for use in the shop was being left for them to collect.
The customer called to the shop a few days later but did not ask for the voucher. Once again they returned to the shop a couple of days later and this time the retailer identified them, engaged in conversation and was reassured that they were unharmed. They were given the voucher and encouraged to use it as a gesture of goodwill. The customer has returned several times since and has not used the voucher.
Our Retailer friend has learned to employ the simple principle of be a nice person. Perhaps he will remember however, not ever to wash floors until the shop has closed for the day!
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Sweden has thousands of cars running on renewable diesel sourced from the paper industry through hydrogenation while Finland’s Neste is taking its own solution to the world.
Sweden plans to reduce the climate impact of the transport sector by 70% (excluding aviation) and to have a fossil-fuel-free vehicle fleet by 2030. Finland will go carbon neutral by 2035. While Norway has set similar targets the strategy for the transport sector is a full transition to electro mobility. In addition to electric cars, its neighbouring regions have invested heavily in the development of a renewable liquid fuels industry with private and public support. A new part of the fuel mix ecosystem is HVO.
HVO (Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil) is a renewable fuel component that can be blended in diesel or used instead of diesel in diesel engines. Hydrogenated vegetable oil consists of a vegetable oil or animal fats refined using hydrogen under the influence of a catalyzer in order to raise quality, turning it into a fuel for diesel engines. In 2017, renewable fuels accounted for 21.4% of the total transportation fuel usage in Sweden.
The feedstock used in the process can be of the same or much lower quality than while producing the regular biodiesel but the final product is paramount or superior. The main strength points of the HVO diesel are: high cetane number, high energy density and lack of oxygen content. The key advantage of Green Diesel, however, is its CFPP level which can go down to -20°C or even -50°C irrespective of the feedstock used, according to GREENEA.
HVO can be blended into diesel or used in its pure form, commonly referred to as HVO100. Not many cars can currently run on HVO 100 but a number of heavy-duty vehicles are adapted to the fuel.
How and where is it produced
The EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED) stablishes the type of feedstock that be used by refineries. Under the current administration, oils that can be used for food production or that can harm the environment such as palm oil are off limits. The use of residues from the production of palm oil or the meat industry can, however, be used.
Swedish oil company Preem sources most of its raw materials from Sweden, such as pyrolysis oils that can be made from sawdust, or lignin, a residual from paper mills. In 2016, Preem had a production capacity for renewable diesel of 140,000 tons per year. In 10 years’ time their goal is to produce at least three million cubic meters of renewable fuel.
“The raw material we are using is residue out of the forest from the pulp industry. It allows to reduce greenhouse emissions by 90% compared to regular diesel. It is a very efficient way to tackle climate change,” Sören Eriksson, Coordinator of Product Development at Preem, told PetrolPlaza.
Another major producer of biofuels in Scandinavia is Neste. By using wide range of waste fat and vegetable oil the Finnish refiner and retailer can produce a number of renewable products. Its most successful so far is Neste MY Renewable Diesel, which is now available in Finland, Sweden, the Baltics and California.
With 2.7 million tons, Neste is responsible for the majority of total renewable diesel production globally. Neste MY Renewable Diesel reduced climate emissions by 8.3 million tonnes of CO2 in 2017. It sources its saw materials from different oils (palm, rapeseed, soybean, jatropha, camelina) and waste residues (animal fat, fish fat, used cooking oil).
Challenges facing HVO
According to Ebba Tamm, Swedish Petroleum & Biofuels Institute, there are a few challenges facing the expansion of HVO as a fuel. First, vehicle manufacturers need to provide cars that can run on HVO 100 if the fossil-free fuel is to become mainstream. Second, equipment at petrol stations and other facilities needs to be adapted as “biofuel products do not behave like traditional fuels.” And finally, it Sweden is going to continue with ambitious targets for the production of HVO, they need to find the sources of feedstock.
With a higher percentage of HVO in Scandinavia’s fuelling industry it will become a challenge to source enough raw materials. If other European countries decide to replicate that model, the challenge of sourcing raw materials will become even harder.
Article copied from Petrol Plaza
Is there anything that I can do to prevent my premium from increasing?
There are many actions with little or no cost that can be done.
Statutory Inspections – your legal duty
There are certain items of Plant and Machinery that are subject to Statutory Inspection by a suitably qualified/certified Engineer which, should you fail to have in place can potentially invalidate your Employers and Public Liability Insurance covers for any accident where they are involved.
The two main categories are Lifting Equipment and Pressure Vessels.
Such equipment might include Coffee Barista’s, (with steam pressure boilers), Passenger and Goods Lifts, Walk-in Freezers/Cold Rooms, Fork Lift Trucks and other lifting and/or pressure devices.
Fork Lift Trucks must have Motor Insurance in place unless they are only ever used on private property where the public simply have no access to. In either case however they must all have Statutory Inspection cover in place.
So for example, if an employee or a customer is injured as a result of an accident involving your Fork Lift Truck or your Coffee Barista your Insurer will only deal with the injury claim if you can show a valid Engineering Inspection Certificate.
We urge you to please contact us without delay in order for us to establish on your behalf if you have any equipment needing Statutory Inspection arranged.
We want to acknowledge the assistance and contribution of Sean Thompson, Irish Engineering Services Ltd in composing this piece of valuable advice.
Always remember – call us to discuss any/every incident. We will advise and guide you.
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gerry@jdminsurance.ie stephen@jdminsurance.ie jackie@jdminsurance.ie
The following article has been taken from the APEA Bulletin Magazine June 2020
Navigating the Energy EvolutionBy Jen Patterson, Marketing Manager, Adler and Allan15APEA tel/fax 0345 603 5507
With the announcement in February that the UK is to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2035, we are entering a complex period of energy transition which requires careful navigation. A slow carbon sources aren’t yet producing enough energy consistently, we cannot simply switch off the old hydrocarbon technology. Kurt Wachter, Director, Fuel Infrastructure Division at environmental risk reduction specialists Adler and Allan, examines this energy evolution and the complexities of the transition period.Diversifying energy infrastructure Whether your business is transport, utilities, food manufacture, telecoms, banking, data storage or even renewable energy, to meet on going legislation you are likely to need to diversify your energy infrastructure and investment. At a time of transition in the economy as a whole, energy and the use of energy will change whether you are a supplier or a consumer. Many sectors will have a long transition period of using both hydrocarbon and renewable energy sources at the same time as we migrate over. The way you navigate the transition now, could determine your success in the future. We shouldn’t be fooled into thinking that a green future doesn’t come with risks and liquid fuels like hydrogen or renewables are still potentially hazardous and require appropriate environmental protection measures. An effective transition plan will help you stay one step ahead of your competitors.
Diminishing skill set
As we transition to new energy sources, we will need to continue to maintain an ageing infrastructure of hydrocarbon fuel tanks which require traditional skills such as tank cleaning, together with a knowledge of specialist health and safety. Hydrogen could be a big part of our future energy makeup and as a liquid fuel requires similar skills to today, albeit with differing technology. Increasingly, we are seeing these traditional skills diminishing as young engineers understandably future proof themselves. What will happen if the traditional skills run out before the technology expires?
Remaining compliant
As the energy market evolves so too does the legislation surrounding it, and not just around new technology. Recognising their age, traditional fuel assets are subject to more and more stringent legislation to prevent contamination, such as the SEPA legislation around containment and bund efficiency. Are you aware of your ongoing legal requirements in both new and old energy technology?
Water is the enemy
As a result of heightened regulatory measures to decrease greenhouse gas emissions and reduce reliance on fossil fuels, the composition of the fuels we use has changed dramatically in recent years, adding ever increasing amounts of non hydrocarbon elements. When these biofuels come into contact with water, they create a microbial contamination in the tank. Microbial contamination of diesel fuel occurs when water finds its way into a tank as a result of condensation, rainwater penetration or absorption from the air. This kind of contamination not only accelerates tank corrosion, it can block lines and filters and significantly reduce the performance of the fuel itself.
As diesel is commonly used for emergency power generation, the potential for microbial growth exposes data centres, hospitals and the like to considerable operational and reputation risk. Investing in maintenance, inspection and remedial work should now be essential to your operations, especially when you consider microbial induced corrosion can accelerate tank corrosion by as much as 1mm per year, meaning a new steel tank could fail in less than seven years.
Navigating the transition
Whatever sector you are in, the energy transition will change the way you do business in the future. As technology, skills and legislation evolve and we begin to phase out the old and welcome in the new, requirements are changing.
We are all making this transition. Adler and Allan has always been involved in energy; we started in coal and coke, moved to liquid fuels, now our brand reflects the wider evolution to a more diverse energy infrastructure. To meet evolving environmental demands, Adler and Allan gives customers peace of mind in detecting and identifying the environmental risks posed today and in the future. We have the knowledge and the expertise inhouse to maintain your fuel infrastructure for as long as it is required while ensuring you remain compliant as the legislative landscape evolves. We know the pitfalls, such as microbial activity in biofuels, and can advise on adjusted compliance regimes to ensure you remain operational. Partnering with you we will help you navigate the energy transition, keeping your businesses strong, reducing the prospect of litigation, costly fines and bad publicity, while reducing the threat to the environment.
The Secret of Sherwood Forest Oil Production in England during World War II By Bob Renkes, Consultant, Tulsa, Ok
There had been little domestic petroleum exploration in the United Kingdom since foreign supplies resumed after the World War I. But in the summer of 1942, England’s oil supply lines were being devastated by German air raids and U-boat attacks. It was running out of oil. Britain’s secretary of petroleum, Geoffrey Lloyd, called an emergency meeting in London of the Oil Control Board with members of the oil industry’s advisory committee in mid-August of 1942. The purpose was to consider the impending crisis in oil. The Admiralty had reported that fuel stocks were two million barrels below normal safety reserves and were sufficient to meet only two months’ requirements. Reserves of approximately five million barrels were normally held in some forty widely scattered storage facilities. But bombing raids by the Luftwaffe had destroyed almost a million barrels in the dock areas. At the same time increased military demands by the armed services further undercut reserves. “Without oil no plane could fly; no tank could move; no ship could sail; no gun could fire”, said historians Guy and Grace Woodward in their 1973 book The Secret of Sherwood Forest.
It was at this meeting that a petroleum engineer named Philip Southwell proposed that Britain’s own little-known oilfields in Sherwood Forest, near Eakring and Duke’s Wood, be tapped. Southwell had twenty years experience with the D’Arcy Exploration Company, a subsidiary of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, Ltd., the world’s largest oil company. He explained that England’s own oilfields had double value: first, they were inland in a forested area safely beyond the enemy’s submarine attacks, and second, the large mature trees in the area provided great natural camouflage from the Luftwaffe.
These oilfields, in other words, had the potential to produce an “unsinkable tanker.” Development of these oilfields had been slow since they were discovered in 1939 and 1940 because the drilling equipment used by D’Arcy consisted of 13 large rigs originally designed for deep-drilling operations at Anglo-Iranian operations in Persia. These drilling outfits with heavy 136-foot derricks were not suitable for the rapid drilling required in the relatively shallow production in Sherwood Forest. Southwell proposed that the proper equipment could be procured in the United States. He was dispatched to America on September 3, 1942, to buy what was needed to quickly develop the oilfields.
Southwell found out in Washington that U.S. drilling equipment could not be purchased by foreign corporations or nations. Some other method had to be developed. Southwell eventually wound up in Ardmore, Oklahoma, at the home of oilman Lloyd Noble. Southwell, Noble and representatives of the Fain-Porter Drilling Company of Oklahoma City came up with a plan and negotiated a contract with D’Arcy to send both men and equipment to England. The contract between the oil companies called for 100 new wells to be drilled in one year. During the meeting, Noble surprised Southwell by telling him that he would not expect to take any profit out of the work.
After reimbursement of cost and expenses and overhead, the work, he said, would be a contribution to winning the war by Noble Drilling Corporation and the Fain-Porter Company. Noble tapped an assistant superintendent named Eugene Rosser to head up the project. Rosser secretly recruited 43 other roughnecks—all volunteers–from the oil patch in Oklahoma and Texas, bought supplies and equipment (four rigs, three of which survived the journey across the Atlantic), and headed for England. Only after arriving in March of 1943 did they learn the location of Britain’s secret oilfields. The roughnecks were boarded with monks at the Anglican monastery at Kelham Hall. The monastery was being used as the mother house of the Society of the Sacred Mission and as a theological seminary for the education of candidates for the ministry in the Anglican faith. The monastery provided ample space for the men without crowding.
The location afforded comparable isolation from any city or town of substantial size, yet it had the advantage of Kelham village which consisted of a dozen or so houses, a post office, and a general store. The area included a fourteenth century parish church and a pub. Upon their arrival, the men were given individual identity cards from the Sheriff of Nottinghamshire. The sudden influx of Americans was rumored to be for making a movie, probably a western. And all the equipment—the rigs, including the mast, fuel, and water tanks, the trucks, and all other equipment—was painted a shade of green that blended into the spring foliage so that none of the oil field equipment could be distinguished from a plane flying at 3,000 feet. Smith D. Turner of the American Embassy staff observed during a visit to Kelham Hall: “The American roughnecks worked hard—twelve hours a day, seven days a week—84 hours a week—with a day off every two to four weeks. And there wasn’t too much to do or many places to go when they do have a day off.” And Turner went on to ponder this question in an article he later wrote about the unlikely combination of the “rogues and robes”, as they had come to be called:”Will the monks succeed in getting the roughnecks to take the vows, or will the roughnecks bring the monks out and help with the job of setting casing on the oil wells?” The Americans were completing and putting on production wells in the Eakring and Duke’s Wood area at the average rate of one well per week. The British crews’ best time for completing a well for production had been five weeks.
In most cases about eight weeks were required by the British crews for completing and putting the well on production. This fact, demonstrated in the field, was not lost on their British hosts. Southwell, who was in daily contact with operations in the field, invited Rosser to meet in London with officers, directors and key personnel of the Anglo- Iranian Oil Company, Ltd. During the meeting, Rosser outlined the time-savings devices practiced by the American crews to his esteemed audience. As a result, an arrangement was made whereby one British worker was put on the drilling rigs with each of the American crews.
In most cases the British were anxious to learn and the American crews proved to be extremely cooperative. After a year, the contract between the Anglo-Iranian Company and the Noble and Fain-Porter companies had been completed and terminated. The Americans boarded the passenger vessel HMS Mauritania on March 3, 1944 to take the boys home. Their return was without fanfare. It is not known if any returned to England to fight on the side of the Allies.
Sadly, one American never made it home. In November 1943, Texan Herman Douthit fell from a derrick to his death. Burial was arranged with full military honors in Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey. After the war, in accordance with Veterans Administration policy, Douthit’s body, with the remains of other servicemen previously interred in cemeteries throughout Britain, was transferred to the American Military Cemetery and Memorial located near Cambridge.
The only American civilian interred in the cemetery is Herman Douthit. The Americans logged 106 completions and 94 producers during the year they were in Britain. Production from the oilfields of the English Midlands had risen during 1943 from 300 barrels per day to a peak production of slightly more than 3,000 U.S. barrels of oil per day. By the end of 1943, Eakring-Duke’s Wood and Formby had sent 2,289,207 U.S. barrels of high grade paraffin base oil to refineries on the west coast and in the south of Scotland.
Although the Americans could not know at the time, 1944-45 would add another 1,236,346 to the total of U.S. barrels shipped to refineries, making a total of 3,520,553 U.S. barrels produced and moved to refineries from Great Britain’s own oilfields by the end of 1945. This was a remarkable record that remains an amazing feat under the circumstances of wartime shortages and hardships prevailing in Great Britain during 1943 and the early part of 1944. British Petroleum continued to produce from Duke’s Wood until the field’s depletion in 1965. The total output from the field from 1939-1965 was 47 million barrels.
The American roughnecks are remembered with a monument, a statue called the Oil Patch Warrior, which stands to this day at Rufford Abbey Country Park, near Nottingham. The seven-foot bronze oilfield worker, erected in 1991, is depicted at parade rest with a roughneck’s best weapon – a Stillson wrench – instead of a rifle. Ten years after the ceremony in England, the citizens of Ardmore, Oklahoma, came upon the molds in the artist’s foundry. The statue was recast from the original molds and the Oil Patch Warrior’s twin was dedicated in 2001, with representatives from Noble Oil and Fain-Porter joining veterans at the ceremony.
Time has taken away almost all on both sides of the Atlantic who struggled to preserve democracy during World War II. But fortunately the book and the two statues survive to remind us about the friendship, survival and cooperation of the people from two proud countries merely separated by an ocean. Bob Renkes is the former Executive Vice President of the Petroleum Equipment Institute and is an Honorary Member of the APEA
