Exol’s Sales Director Steve Dunn said “Exol Rotherham has recently commissioned a new weighbridge which will significantly improve customer deliveries. With the new weighbridge, single grades and collections can be sold by weight and trailers can be checked to avoid overweight loads”.

We’ll have more on this story with pictures very soon.

The Oil and Gas UK 2013 Activity Survey, published today, said there was £11.4 billion investment in the UK’s oil and gas sector in 2012, a figure which is expected to rise to at least £13 billion this year.

It revealed the number of projects submitted to the Department of Energy and Climate Change and given development approval almost doubled between 2011 and 2012, highlighting the potential for the UK’s offshore oil and gas sector to boost economic activity.

Malcolm Webb, Oil and Gas UK’s chief executive, said: “Here is some really good news for the UK.

“After two disappointing years brought about by tax uncertainty and consequent low investment, the UK continental shelf is now benefiting from record investment in new developments and in existing assets and infrastructure, the strongest for more than three decades.

“The recent introduction of targeted tax allowances to promote the development of a range of difficult projects, coupled with the Government’s ground-breaking commitment to provide certainty on decommissioning tax relief, has prompted global companies and independent businesses alike to take another look at the UK as an investment destination and resulted in a new wave of investment. Click here to continue

Further reading

North Sea oil enjoys surge in investment and higher profile

North Sea oil and gas investment at 30 year high

North Sea oil to give George Osborne £25bn boost

Pre-programming: Once the strategists have agreed on when the driver is to make a pit stop and the intended duration of the next stint, the driver’s fuel rig is programmed to deliver the precise amount of fuel required.

Timing: The driver’s race engineer tells him over the radio, usually on the preceding lap, when to pit. At the same time, the team manager — listening in to all team radio communications — scrambles the driver’s pit crew, who gather their equipment and tires and move from the garage into the pit apron in front of the garage. The lollipop man — a crew member with a big carbon-fibre lollipop — stations himself in line with where the nose of the car will stop and holds out his lollipop directly in the driver’s path, giving him a clearly visible guide for his precise stopping place.

Pit lane entry: The driver enters the pit lane at full racing speed but brings the speed down to the pit lane speed limit of 80 km/h (60 km/h in the very tight pit lane of Monaco) before he crosses the white line that denotes the start of the speed limit area. As he crosses the line, he engages a pit lane speed limiter that electronically prevents the car from accelerating above the speed limit. Selecting the limiter automatically pops open the fuel filler flap. Click here to continue

Further reading

How Formula 1 crews overclock the pit stop

Pit stop perfection: Formula 1 teams reveal their technology

Overview – 2013 rule changes at a glance

Read more: How to Keep Your Chain Saw Sharp | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2363154_keep-chain-saw-sharp.html#ixzz2KbUtKiSu

Further information

Keeping your chainsaw sharp and ready

How to sharpen your chainsaw

Basic chainsaw maintenance

Rises in pump prices for petrol and diesel over the last 10 years have been caused largely by higher crude oil prices and increases in tax and duty and not a lack of competition, an OFT report has found.

The evidence gathered by the OFT suggests that at national level competition is working well in the UK road fuel sector, although it has identified an absence of pricing information on motorways as a concern and does not rule out taking action in some local markets if there is persuasive evidence of anti-competitive behaviour.

The OFT launched a call for information on the UK road fuel sector in September last year to determine whether there are competition problems that need to be addressed. In addition to assessing the information submitted to it, the OFT has undertaken detailed analysis of pricing data to investigate claims that the £47bn market is not working well.

The OFT found that, pre-tax, the UK has some of the cheapest road fuel prices in Europe. In the 10 years between 2003 and 2012 pump prices increased from 76 pence per litre (ppl) to 136ppl for petrol, and from 78ppl to 142ppl for diesel, caused largely by an increase of nearly 24ppl in tax and duty and 33ppl in the cost of crude oil.

A key feature of the road fuels sector over the past decade has been the growing influence of the big four supermarkets. They increased their share of road fuel sold in the UK from 29 per cent in 2004 to 39 per cent in 2012. The supermarkets’ high throughput per forecourt and greater buying power has allowed them to sell fuel more cheaply than other competitors. In August 2012, for example, the average price of petrol at supermarkets was 2ppl cheaper than the average at oil company owned sites and 4.3ppl cheaper than the average charged by independent dealers. Click here to continue

Further reading

Watchdogs revved up over OFT report on fuel prices

Petrol prices: all pumped up

OFT fuel pump price rises report slammed by RAC and AA

A SHALE gas firm is to seek permission to resume drilling at a Fylde site.

Dirt is your trailer’s biggest enemy. Once particles of dirt and dust get into your trailer’s moving parts, it can cause friction and break down. Keeping your trailer’s parts greased can help keep joints and axels moving smoothly. Before you take it back onto the road, do a little greasing first.

Pretty much any part of your trailer that’s designed to move in some form or fashion or comes in contact with other parts should be kept lubricated to prevent corrosion and friction. Features like a winch, ball hitch, springs and tongue jack all require lubrication and you should keep them greased throughout the year. It’s a good idea to make lubricating your trailer’s moving parts an important part of your routine before each long trip.

It’s important to keep all moving parts lubricated. One of the most important parts are the wheel bearings, the cylindrical rings that connect the wheel to the axle and allow for the wheel’s free rotation. Since the wheels are extremely important to your trailer’s ability to function well, it’s important to maintain your wheel bearings. And since the wheel bearings and axles are a metal-on-metal combination, it’s important to keep them well greased to prevent friction and potential wheel damage. Click here to continue

Further reading

Utility trailer maintenance

Boat trailer maintenance

Trailer checks before each journey

Originally incorporated as Bamford & Martin, Aston Martin was founded by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford on 15 January 1913. The name was changed in 1914 after their early cars successfully campaigned the Aston Clinton hillclimb in Buckinghamshire.

The Chelsea-based the company earned a reputation as providers of sports machines for racers and enthusiasts. 1926 saw the firm compete in the French Grand Prix, with two cars successfully completing the race.

It was under David Brown, the British industrialist who acquired Aston Martin in 1947, that the firm produced some of its most well known cars. The first car to wear the DB monicker, the DB2, entered production the same year and was followed by the DB3, DB4 and DBR1 race car in 1957, after the company relocated to Newport Pagnell.

In 1960 Aston Martin joined forces with Italian coachbuilder Zagato to create the DB4GT Zagato, a highly modified and exclusive car, which started a series of bespoke design creations that continues to this day.

International brand awareness arguably didn’t arrive until 1963, when the newly lauched DB5 took a starring role alongside Sean Connery in Goldfinger. Since then Aston Martin cars have forever been linked with the film franchise, Click here to continue.

Further reading

Aston Martin centenary gallery

Aston Martin kicks off centenary celebrations

Aston Martin Vanquish 2014 pictures and eyes-on

A Shell oil drilling rig grounded off an Alaska island since a New Years Eve storm has suffered damage from waves and flooding but has spilled none of the 155,000 gallons of fuel and other oil products aboard, officials managing the incident said on Thursday.

Salvage experts were flown to the stricken Kulluk drillship on Wednesday and Thursday, which remains upright and stable not far from Kodiak Island, officials said at a news conference.

“There is no evidence of sheening in the vicinity,” said Sean Churchfield, Royal Dutch Shell’s Alaska operations manager and the company’s emergency response coordinator.

Salvage crews found some wave damage to the vessel’s topside and several breached hatches that caused water damage inside, he said. Generators had also been damaged and new ones may have to be moved in to provide power to move the vessel, he said. Click here to continue

Further information

Runaway Alaska oil rig dragged 2 tugs for miles

Oil rig aground off Alaska is damaged but not leaking

Unless you’re doing dry machining, you’ll use some kind of cutting oil or fluid in your machines. Cutting fluids and oils provide lubrication and cooling. They also help remove chips from the cutting area. Selecting from the hundreds of available cutting fluids can be a real challenge. Experts in the business offer some guidelines on selecting and maintaining this important part of the machining process. Usually, you’ll choose either a straight oil or a water-miscible (dilutable) fluid.

Straight oils

These are “mineral oils,” petroleum products made fromcrude oil. Straight oils offer the maximum amount of lubrication, and the least cooling capacity. Blended with additives to improve performance, these oils are often used in screw machines and in heavy cutting operations like broaching and gun drilling.

Vegetable oils can be used instead of, or in addition to, mineral oils in many applications. They tend to have better lubricating qualities, and higher flash point, which is the temperature at which their vapor will ignite. In one cutting oil product line, for example, the flash points range from 200F to over 460F, with the vegetable oils on the higher end.

Water-miscible fluids

In addition to straight oils, three kinds of water-miscible cutting fluids are widely used. They give good tool life and help to produce a good surface finish, said Randy Templin, vice president, Blaser Swisslube, Goshen, N.Y., a manufacturer of cutting oils and fluids. When properly mixed, the fluid is mostly water, with a few percent of the fluid concentrate, which is made up of oil and/or synthetics, plus additives. Click to continue

Further information

Cutting fluid characteristics

Cutting fluid types and uses