EEMUA has won the Best Terminal Supplier category at the global Tank Storage Awards 2019 held on March 26, in Rotterdam.
In accepting the award, EEMUA Chief Executive Stefan Kukula said: “EEMUA is a membership body for organisations that own or operate industrial assets. In this gathering, we are probably best known for our guidance publication EEMUA 159, which has become the “bible” for how to operate and maintain storage tanks. This year it celebrates its 25th anniversary. It has had some famous names in the world of tank storage leading efforts to put it together over the past 25 years; John de Wit, Hans Kuipers, Jan de Jong, and current chair of the working group, Robin Essenius. More importantly there has been an army of volunteer experts drawn from EEMUA member companies who have contributed to the guidance, ensuring it represents good and best practice as carried out by the user community. It is they who have kept it relevant for the past 25 years, and who are working to keep it relevant in the future. I just get to pick up this award for them.”
EEMUA 159 is recognised as the most comprehensive users’ guide available on above ground vertical cylindrical, steel storage tanks. It is an example of what good practice looks like and assists in the establishment of essential inspection and maintenance requirements in order to minimise in-service problems and extend the useful life of these storage tanks.
Unlike the very few alternative guides available, it offers guidance on tanks built to BS, EN or API standards for the storage of petroleum and chemical feedstocks and products and refrigerated gases. These standards include BS 2654, API 620 and API 650, DIN 4119-1 and -2 G0801 and EN 14015.
In the early 1990s a number of tank operators were aware that there was no generally accepted guidance on the inspection and maintenance of the variety of tanks that they owned. Regulators would often question the inspection and maintenance routines adopted and ask for evidence of their effectiveness. By using the facilitation ability of the EEMUA organisation, experts from a number of major operators developed a guide that was accepted by the UK regulator and which became EEMUA 159 Edition 1.
Over the past 25 years EEMUA 159 has been developed and expanded to include more modern techniques and processes and Edition 5 is the core document for the competency training courses for inspectors and tank assessors throughout the world.
Training courses based on EEMUA 159 are now available in Dutch, English, French and German. EEMUA 159 is also the foundation for EEMUA’s storage tanks e-learning in Dutch and English.
For more information visit www.eemua.org
