During February 2017, ACAPMA will be holding two workshops for those businesses involved in the provision of equipment and contracting services to the Australian fuel retail industry.
The workshops are part of ACAPMA’s continued commitment to understanding and championing the needs of petroleum equipment and contracting businesses, following the deregistration of the previous Australian Petroleum Industry Contractors and Services Association (APICSA) in 2014.
“Since assuming the role of representation for these businesses, our sole focus has been to work with all parties to establish a national registration scheme for petroleum contractors”, said ACAPMA CEO Mark McKenzie.
“With this scheme now up and running, we plan to turn our attention to the possible future production of a series of Best Practice Guidelines for the contract services industry during 2017”, Mark continued.
The deregistration of APICSA created a gap with respect to the maintenance and development of industry best practices for the provision of petroleum contractor services in Australia.
As a result, elements of some of the past Industry Guidelines that are utilised by State/Territory Governments in their regulations have become obsolete.
The growth of independent fuel retailers – many of whom have limited access and knowledge of best practice standards – has also contributed to a growing requirement for the development of some basic industry guidelines in areas such as: Vapour Recovery, Ethanol Storage Systems, management of forecourt run-off, and UPSS management.
It is envisaged that the new Guidelines will be developed by expert industry working groups to be assembled by ACAPMA, with the work to be overseen by ACAPMA’s Equipment and Services (E&S) Council.
“Our hope is that the first of these new ACAPMA Industry Guidelines can be published by the end of 2017”, said Mark.
The purpose of the workshops will be to secure industry feedback on the areas that are in greatest need of best practice guidelines and to hear about some of the more general issues that may be impacting adversely on the petroleum contracting industry.
“We are realistic about this process in that we can only do so much, but our hope is that we can assemble some basic guidelines that provide valuable guidance to fuel retailers to assist with the scoping of future site improvement and refurbishment works”, said Mark.
“Our aim is to assess what is already out there and whether there are any priority areas for Guidelines development”, Mark continued.
Prior to commencing this process, ACAPMA entered into conversations with the Petroleum Equipment Institute (PEI) of the USA with a view to the possible use of the PEI Framework as a basis for developing Best Practice Guidelines that are directly relevant to the Australian market.
“These conversations were very positive and we are hopeful of future collaboration with PEI in this area”, said Mark.
Workshop details
The half day workshops will be conducted on a roundtable basis to promote open dialogue amongst stakeholders. The dates and times of the workshops are as follows:
- Sydney CBD – Wednesday 22 February 2017 – This workshop will be conducted between 10:00am – 12:30pm, followed by a light lunch.
- Melbourne CBD – Thursday 23 February 2017 – This workshop will commence with a light lunch at 12:30pm and run between 1:00pm – 3:30pm
The workshops are open to all interested parties, but participants must register by emailing Catherine Squire of ACAPMA via catherines@acapma.com.au.
Registrations are open until COB on Monday 20 February but places are limited so book now.
