Latest Fuel News

Despite a small reversal in the cost of crude oil after a hitting a record high close to $112 a barrel, the long term forecast offers no respite for motorists and energy-hungry manufacturers.

According to Shell chief Jeroen van der Veer, demand for crude will continue to be high as the world’s population jumps by 50% to 9 billion people in the next two decades, whilst major new oil discoveries around the globe during this time will be few and far between.

He said: “Supplies of easy oil will not be enough to match demand. Unconventional sources, like renewables, will have to play a part. I hesitate to give any forecast, our track record is lousy.”

However, Mr Van der Veer also said that it is “quite likely” crude will continue tostay “highly volatile” as there’s “so much uncertainty around”.

TotalCard has been singled out by the Institute of Transport Management for its ‘UK Fuel Card of the Year 2008’ Award as a result of its superior product, service offerings and geographical reach. Commenting on the Award to TotalCard, Mr. Patrick Sheedy, Media & PR Director for the Institute said; “TotalCard is a leading integrated fuel management service which offers the fuel card as a means of practical, innovative and effective management solutions for fleets of all sizes.  The scheme provides a highly flexible structure for account control, with a range of configurations and online access.  The card accounts can be controlled through the internet, which also enables more immediate and easily accessible fleet management.  The web-based system allows cards to be ordered, replaced, and cancelled at the click of a button, and for transactions and invoices to be accessed and downloaded. 

Throughout the extensive research, each company was judged on a number of areas, which we identified as extremely important. We looked at the range of service provided, the importance of innovation, the security in place, and the importance placed by the company on customer relations. It became clear that Total Oil’s TOTALCARD excelled in all these areas, separating the company from its competitors and making TOTALCARD the UK’s premier fuel card.

Commenting on the award, Mr. Patrick Sheedy, Media & PR Director of the Institute said: “It is my pleasure to announce TOTALCARD as the ‘UK Fuel Card of the Year 2008’, in recognition of Total Oil’s sterling development of the card and also the extensive range of support services surrounding, which cannot but benefit fleet operators by helping them become more cost effective.”  Effective security is a must when dealing with fuel cards and TOTALCARD, was the first to offer a PIN service, is widely considered to be the safest fuel card in the UK. Fleet managers not only benefit from this impressive security, they can also ensure simple and effective fuel management through the use of TOTALCARD. Through Total’s partnership with Shell and BP, the card is acceptable at a huge number of service stations across the UK.

Environmental campaigners have called for the government to cancel plans to introduce biofuels at the petrol pumps next month over concerns they may actually cause more pollution than than fossil fuels. The RSPB has urged members of the public to email Secretary of State for Transport, Ruth Kelly and request she supsends the introduction of the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO), due on April 15th, which will mean at least 2.5% of every litre of fuel sold will be biofuel.

It stated: “Swathes of important habitat have been decimated and the survival of many species has been threatened due to the expansion of worldwide biofuels production - an expansion that has been driven by the thoughtless policies of governments around the world. In many cases, what is produced does not even deliver greenhouse gas savings - some are even more polluting than the fossil fuels they are meant to replace.”

It added that safeguards needed to be in place to prove biofuels could be produced sustainably and help combat climate change.

The criticisms came as Kelly invited the UK’s (newly formed) Renewable Fuels Agency to lead the study on the “wider economic and environmental impacts - particularly the indirect impacts - of different forms of biofuel production”. In a statement, the DfT said the results of the study would help form the development of UK and EU policies in the area, and “underpin the considerations of EU biofuel targets after 2010″.

The current government biofuel targets following on from this April are 3.75% in 2009, and 5% by 2010/11. But there are no rules at present on how and where this biofuel should be produced.

Kelly said: “There has been much recent debate around the risks associated with overly rapid expansion of biofuel production, with evidence now emerging on the indirect, or ‘displacement’ impacts, of growing demand for agricultural production around the world. The UK government takes this issue very seriously. We are not prepared to go beyond current UK target levels for biofuels until we are satisfied it can be done sustainably.”

The recent cold weather has revealed the varying standards of quality of biodiesel and the issues faced by fleets that run on high levels of the eco fuel.

The use of biodiesel is growing as fleets look to cheaper and greener alternatives to traditional fuel types. However, not all is going to plan. For example, a bus company in Norfolk were forced to apologise to customers for “unprecedented disruption” to it’s services after the biodiesel in all of their 11 buses froze, making the vehicles unusable.

First eastern Counties managing director Peter Iddon said until the problems of using biodiesel in cold weather are overcome, the bus company will return to using low-sulphur diesel.

Generally, biodiesel has a slightly higher freezing point than regular diesel but the freezing point can change according to the quality of the fuel. Experts at biodiesel manufacturer Green Fuels said that biodiesel made from vegetable oil behaves very sililarly to standard diesel with a freezing point of around -12C.

However, their spokesman said those blends made from “tropical oils” such as palm oil, or fuel made from animal fat, struggle in the European climate with a freezing point much closer to zero.

But due to the number of different production methods, there are very few production standards for biodiesel. Only expensive top end rapeseed oil based biodiesel has a European standard - EN 14214.

Fleets running their fleets on blends of up to 5% biodiesel mixed with regular diesel have no need for concern.