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

Gasoline or Petrol?Petrol ­ started in LondonBy Jamie Thompson, Chairman of Technical Committee

Which came first—the gas pump or the car pulling up to it?

Gasoline was around well before the invention of the internal combustion engine and for many years was considered a useless by­product of the refining of crude oil to make kerosene/paraffin, a standard fuel for lamps through much of the 19th century. Oil refining of the day—and into the first years of the 20th century—relied on a relatively simple distillation process that separated crude oil into portions, called fractions, of different hydrocarbon compounds (molecules consisting of varying arrangements of carbon and hydrogen atoms) with different boiling points. Heavier kerosene/paraffin, with more carbon atoms per molecule and a higher boiling point, was easily separated from lighter gasoline, with fewer atoms and a lower boiling point, as well as from other hydro carbon compounds and impurities in the crude oil mix. Kerosene was the keeper; gasoline and other compounds as well as natural gas that was often found alongside oil deposits, were often just burned off.

In the UK in 1859 a chemist by the name of Eugene Carless leased some property in White Post Lane, a pleasant country lane which meandered through the small village of Hackney Wick. Mr. Carless had decided to set up a business as a refiner of oil, and having great expectations called the premises “Hope Works”.

In 1850 paraffin had been obtained from shale in Scotland, and in 1859 the first successful oil well had been drilled in America. In those days the main market was for burning oil (paraffin). In addition to producing special paraffin, Carless decided to separate and refine the more volatile fractions and eventually found a market for them. Among other products he produced aniline, the basis of a new dye, and benzene which could be used for dry cleaning. Two companies, Achille Serre and Lush and Cook set up as dry cleaners at the time close to Hope Works to take advantage of this product. Lighthouse Water White Petroleum Oil was another one of his products and led to the adoption of the lighthouse as the trade mark.

As petroleum imports from the US increased Hope Works became the leading distillery in the UK for these crude oils. Expansion brought financial problems to the company through lack of investment and in 1872 the control of the company passed to J HLeonard. Carless became the works chemist and the company traded as Carless, Capel and Leonard. The company expanded their products and included something called gasoline which was then sold to the gas companies for enriching their town gas. They made naptha for flare lamps, and solvent naptha for making rubber solution. Their pentane was accepted as the fuel to be used in the standard lamp for determi­nation of luminosity. In 1890 Daimler engines were being fitted to launches and only Carless could supply the required fuel for these. This fuel was called “Launch Spirit” but was later called Petrol. Owing to a technical hitch the name “Petrol” was never registered as a tradename, but it was generally recognised for some years to be the name of Carless’s fuel only.

The Company itself was also to go on and forge close links with Frederick Henry Royce who with Charles Rolls formed the RollsRoyce Car Company in 1906 and Carless, Capel & Leonard became their preferred supplier of the time. This fuel came to be in great demand as the use of motor vehicles increased. The very first Brighton run which was held to celebrate the end of the “red flag era” was run entirely on Carless Petrol. In 1890 Hope Works was severely damaged by fire and in 1891 the London County Council, the petroleum licensing authority, refused to renew their licence. The difficulties were overcome following discussions and agreement to complete certain improvements within a time period to operate safely. The years from 1900 to 1930 saw a great increase in the use of petrol but the lack of finance caused the company to lag behind in the race which saw the emergence of the major oils at the time; Anglo American Oil Company selling “Pras fuel”, Anglo Iranian Oil Company, and Shell all involved leaving the company to concentrate on solvents and leaving the motor trade to others. There was a reprieve in 1930 when they produced a high octane spirit from coal tar which they called “Coalene”. The Royal Air Force became interested and by 1937 every fighter squadron in the country was using it. The company then decided to sell it to the public and the first resale pump was opened in a filling station operated by Brew Brothers in Kensington. A serious depression in the coal industry at the time gave this product a popular boost with slogans like “Petrol from coal – keep the miners at work”. The outbreak of war put paid to this product but the company adapted and made many tons of Toluene use for the manufacture of TNT.As a young petroleum inspector in training I was escorted to Hope Works as part of my training and found that Hope Works was no longer in a pleasant country lane but in the industrial area of Hackney. They no longer produced any petrol but produced industrial solvents which at the me were still licensed under the Petroleum Acts. I was shown what were the oldest licensed underground tanks in London at the me dating back to the 1890’s which were about to be made safe and removed. If you travel to many parts of the world you will of course hear the words Gasoline or Gas but those associated with the UK still use the word Petrol, which was named by Carless, Capel and Leonard, often referred to as the “Pioneers of Petrol.