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Dear PEI Member:

The Petroleum Equipment Institute has published a new document entitled Recommended Practices for Overfill Prevention of Shop-Fabricated Aboveground Tanks (PEI/RP600). This document fills the need for a comprehensive reference guide that the industry and regulators can use to minimize aboveground tank overfill incidents. PEI members can order the document for $40 at www.pei.org/rp600.

This recommended practice was developed as a direct result of numerous accidents, fires, and personal injuries suffered in recent years by employees of petroleum bulk plants. Here is an example of an accident that inspired the development of this document and the type of accident we hope can be avoided in the future.

Freezing rain and snow fell on the Midwest for several days in early January 2005. The precipitation caused the normal and emergency vents at a bulk plant to freeze shut. As the transport driver was making his delivery into a 15,000-gallon aboveground tank at the bulk plant, the tank ruptured, forcing gasoline through a 9-inch gash.

Product went over the dike wall and into the intake of the transport truck engine. It also covered the driver who was standing near the truck. The engine ignited the gasoline. The fire spread from the refined fuel storage area to propane delivery trucks and several containers. Officials estimated that over 10 million gallons of water were used to cool the storage vessels. The transport driver died as a result of his injuries.

Errors in judgment resulting in tank overfill or over-pressurization is the most common cause of releases to the environment from aboveground storage tanks. In many cases, the volume of fuel released is small and the consequences are minor, although cleaning up a release can still be costly. Occasionally, however, the volume released is very large and the consequences are catastrophic, resulting in personal injuries, large fires, and extensive property damage, as demonstrated above.
 

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Filling aboveground storage tanks presents several unique challenges. First, the transfer of large quantities of fuel into aboveground storage tanks usually involves a variety of pumps, pipes, valves, and controls, which are often unique to each storage-tank facility. Second, the only person typically on site to manage the fuel-transfer operation is the transport driver. And third, there have not been adequate industry standards for fuel-transfer procedures and equipment for the driver and facility owner to reference.

PEI's recommended practice is limited to the installation, operation, inspection, maintenance and testing of overfill-prevention equipment used on shop-fabricated, stationary, and atmospheric aboveground tanks intended for the storage or supply of liquid petroleum and alternative fuels. The recommended practices may be applied to tanks used for:

• Bulk storage
• Motor fuel dispensing
• Emergency-generator systems
• Residential and commercial heating oil supply systems
• Used-oil storage systems.

The document was written by the PEI Aboveground Storage Tank Overfill Prevention Committee: Sonny Underwood (chairman), Mid-South Steel Products; John Albert, Missouri Department of Agriculture; Tracy Barth, MFA Oil Company; Terry D. Cooper, Acterra Group; Brad Holmes, Clay & Bailey Mfg. Co.; Sam Lillard, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality; Phil Myers, Chevron Texaco; Alfred Reid, Broward County Environmental Protection Department; Dana Schmidt, Steel Tank Institute; and Amy Wessel, Morrison Bros. Co.

If you install, maintain, own, regulate or manage aboveground storage tanks, you should have a copy of this publication. We urge you not to use the draft mailed to you in May since public comments to that draft resulted in significant changes to the recommended practice. PEI/RP600-07 is copyrighted and may not be photocopied or otherwise reproduced. Order online ($40 for members: $95 for nonmembers) at www.pei.org/rp600 or request an order form by calling PEI at 918-494-9696. The order form can also be downloaded.

HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUMS UP 78 PERCENT SINCE 2001
The increasing cost of health insurance is putting coverage out of reach for many small to midsize companies and their workers, even though the rise in premiums this year was the lowest increase in eight years, according to a survey released by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which annually tracks the cost of health insurance.
Since 2001, the cost of premiums has gone up 78 percent, far outpacing a 19 percent increase in wages and 17 percent jump in inflation, Kaiser estimates.
This year the cost of premiums paid by workers and their employers was up 6.1 percent. The average family plan offered by a company now costs $12,106, or $62 less than a full-time worker earning the U.S. minimum wage makes, according to the survey. Companies pay an average of $8,824 for such a policy, with the worker paying the difference, Kaiser says.

TWO REGIONAL WEIGHTS AND MEASURES GROUPS COMMENT ON TEMPERATURE COMPENSATION ISSUE
The Western Weights and Measures Association voted to recommend moving the temperature compensation issue forward to the National Conference on Weights and Measures as a voting item and to adopt language to facilitate the sale of refined petroleum products at the retail level on a temperature-compensated basis in jurisdictions that do not prohibit it. Meanwhile, the Central Weights and Measures Association voted last week to recommend withdrawing the temperature compensation proposal from consideration by the National Conference, thus making no change to the weights and measures handbook. The Northeastern and Southern Weights and Measures Associations meet in October.

PEI MEMBER NEWS
OPW Fluid Transfer Group has moved its corporate headquarters to 4680 Parkway Drive, Suite 203, Mason, Ohio 45040. Phone: 513-696-1790. Fax: 513-204-5770. OPW Fluid Transfer Group consists of six business units, including PEI member OPW Engineered Systems.
ZCL Composites Inc., Edmonton, Alberta, and Tank Tech Inc., Blodgett, Missouri, have signed a seven-year supply agreement under which Tank Tech will sell and install ZCL's PHOENIX SYSTEM tank liner product across the United States. Under the agreement ZCL and its affiliates retain the right to market and sell PHOENIX SYSTEM tank liners directly to U.S. customers. Tank Tech has non-exclusive marketing rights and has exclusive installation rights for the PHOENIX SYSTEM in the United States.

PETROLEUM MARKETING NOTES
Susser Holdings Corp., Corpus Christi, Texas, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the parent company of Town & Country Food Stores, San Angelo, Texas. Town & Country has 168 convenience stores in western Texas and eastern New Mexico.
ConocoPhillips has agreed to sell 274 automated Jet branded gasoline stations in Scandinavia to Statoil ASA, Norway's state-controlled oil company. The company said 163 of the stations are in Sweden, 72 in Denmark, and 39 in Norway. European Commission approval is required.
BP has put 34 sites located throughout the Columbus, Cleveland and Cincinnati, Ohio, marketing areas up for sale. Of the 34 sites, 17 are BP-branded stations.

APPOINTMENTS
Franklin Fueling Systems, Madison, Wisconsin, has hired Ed Schaad as vice president, national accounts. He has worked in sales with competing companies and recently held national account sales responsibility in the car wash industry.
Emco Wheaton Retail Corporation, Wilson, North Carolina, has appointed John Vautier as national accounts manager. He has held various positions in the petroleum industry for over 15 years, working in both distributor and manufacturer roles.
Mark VII Equipment Inc., Arvada, Colorado, has announced that Steve Jeffs has assumed the role of vice president of sales. He takes over for Sandy Bass, who is relocating to Dallas to be general manager of Mark VII's new direct sales and service organization in Dallas.

STI OFFERS ONLINE RECERTIFICATION FOR CATHODIC PROTECTION TESTERS
A new, interactive online examination is available to cathodic protection testers currently certified by NACE International or the Steel Tank Institute. All testers must provide proof of active engagement in the field of cathodic protection monitoring. To register for the test, which costs $395, visit www.steeltank.com.

 MEMBERSHIP APPLICATIONS
Colombia distributor. Insepet Ltda., Carrera 90 No. 17B-75, Bogotá, D.C., Colombia, has applied for distributor division membership. Gino Aldo Callegari Melo is general manager for the firm, which was established in 1995. The company installs dispensers, pumps and ATG systems for gasoline stations. Insepet represents Gilbarco, OPW-FC, RedJacket and VeederR. Sponsored for PEI membership by Lucy Sackett, Gilbarco, Greensboro, NC.

ADMITTED TO PEI

• OmegaFlex Inc., Exton, PA (mfr)
• Fred Rice LLC, Fort Pierce, FL (aff)

©2007
Petroleum Equipment Institute
P. O. Box 2380
Tulsa, OK 74101-2380

The TulsaLetter (ISSN 0193-9467) is published two or three times each month by the Petroleum Equipment Institute. Robert N. Renkes, Executive Vice President, Editor. Opinions expressed are the opinions of the Editor. Basic circulation confined to PEI members.