All posts by : Iain Hoey

OGUK, the representative body for the UK offshore oil and gas industry have responded to Shell’s pleadge to accelerate the drive for net-zero emissions in the industry.

Commenting on Shell’s pledge made today OGUK Sustainability Director Mike Tholen said: “It is an exciting time for the country’s oil and gas industry as we see companies including Shell demonstrate how our sector is transforming to meet the clean energy challenge, putting their expertise to work, as other companies are also doing, to help achieve our climate goals here in the UK.

“Now is the time to develop a sustainable future. By reducing the carbon impact of oil and gas as we invest in low carbon technologies, we can unlock a homegrown move towards net zero which maintains consumer affordability, promotes our world class supply chain and protects jobs and the energy communities we support.

“Everyday we see more examples of how this industry is changing. As we continue to face the challenges brought about by the pandemic, the UK economy should build on its strengths. The North Sea Transition Deal proposed in the Energy White Paper will be essential to accelerating investment and creating employment opportunities in new technologies while reducing emissions from production.”

Euralarm have congratulated the Portuguese EU Council Presidency and have given their support to the Presidency’s objectives of supporting the European Single Market and leading the European Union towards a more resilient, global, greener, fair and more digital society.

Since 1970, the association has worked hard to contribute to the European ideals by representing the interests of the fire safety and security industry in the areas of standardisation development and legislation.

Over the past years Euralarm has repeatedly expressed its concern over the European Commission’s interference in EU harmonised standards. Euralarm, together with its partners and stakeholders, consider harmonised standards to be a market-driven implementation tool, rather than an “extension of EU law”.

To successfully recover from the present crisis and enable the industry to fully contribute to the green and digital transition, Euralarm urges the EU to stop treating harmonised standards as part of EU law but rather consider them to be part of the revision of the Industrial Strategy for Europe and the NLF for products.

Euralarm believes that the standardisation processes that have been effective for so many years will continue to be successful, if the Commission, Member States, European standardisation organisations and other stakeholders participate in that process. By doing so, they support innovation in Europe and enable industry to thrive on a global scale.

The very essence of standardisation is that it is a bottom-up process driven by a consensus of the industry through European standardisation organisations. Using standards as a legislation tool not only contradicts this concept but adds unnecessary burden and costs to the industry and consequently has a negative impact on innovation, loss of competitive edge in the global standardisation.

Euralarm therefore urges that, rather than changing today’s process, the stakeholders involved in European standardisation should continue to cooperate and strive for an innovative, and transparent market to deliver high quality products, systems, and services for the benefit of Europe’s society and economy.

A combination of two detection methods from industrial fire specialists Patol have been employed to protect the flagship site of one of the UK’s best known car marques.

Jaguar Land Rover is a name synonymous with British quality. This is reflected in the large new Guy Salmon showroom recently completed at Cribbs Causeway and set to become a landmark building in the local Bristol community.

Protecting the 3.7acre site from the threat of fire is obviously a fundamental requirement in the design & construction process. Main contractor on the project is Midas Construction, with Evans Electrical appointed as the electrical contractor and Astron Fire and Security responsible for the fire detection system.

Guy Salmon is part of the Sytner Group and as a flagship facility in the Group’s portfolio one of the main features on the site is the showroom. 22 new vehicles will be displayed on the ground floor with an additional 20 Approved Used cars on the first floor. A further seventy Used cars will be on show outside and the roof can accommodate up to 236 cars. With such a high value stock, in addition to the building itself, it is vital to provide effective fire protection.

Astron Fire & Security selected an aspirating smoke detection system from Patol as a method particularly suited to covering the voids on the showroom’s two floors. To ensure pipework did not impact on the building interior, aesthetic test points were employed at the end of each pipe run which also enable ease of access. Two 535-2 detectors, with their two-zone capability and powerful fan, protect these areas, with an additional 532 detector used in a smaller drive-through area of the site.

Addressing the site’s parking areas and its significant number of cars, Astron also installed Patol’s analogue resettable linear heat detection cable (LHDC). LHDC is a solution widely employed and well proven in car park applications as high air flows and exhaust fumes can be challenging for conventional smoke detectors. It offers a cost-effective option which is unaffected by damp or high humidity and which is not prone to false alarms. On the Guy Salmon Bristol site, the LHDC features test key switches at the end of the lines and LDM-519-LP controllers.

The site will also have a three-lane drive-in bay for servicing customers’ vehicles and a 29-bay workshop.