Vitol Snaps Up U.K. Cogeneration Power Plant

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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland) - The world's largest energy trader, Vitol Group (Geneva, Switzerland), has taken its first steps into the electricity generation sector by buying one of the U.K.'s biggest cogeneration power stations.

The group has agreed to purchase the Immingham combined heat and power (CHP) plant located in north Lincolnshire. The plant, which has an electricity generation capacity of 1,220-megawatts (MW), is owned by Phillips 66 Power Operations (Houston, Texas).

Operational since 2004, Immingham Combined Heat and Power (ICHP) is fuelled by natural gas with liquid fuel as backup. The plant is billed as 'one of the cleanest most efficient power plants of its type in Europe', using 20% less fuel and producing 25% less CO2 than the alternative of producing heat and power separately. It is also capable of savings of up to 3 million tons of CO2 emissions per year when compared to power produced from conventional coal fired power plants.

The company views investing in cleaner forms of electricity generation as a growth area as older, dirtier fossil-fuelled power plants are shut down.

"Immingham CHP is a high quality power plant with a highly skilled and experienced workforce," noted Ian Taylor, President and CEO of the Vitol Group. "It supplies over 2% of U.K. electricity demand and steam to the Humber and Lindsey oil refineries. We are delighted to add it to our portfolio."

Vitol's main business is in trading energy, with a portfolio including crude oil, oil products, LPG, LNG, natural gas, coal, electricity, agricultural products, metals and carbon emissions. It trades with all of the major national oil companies, the integrated oil majors and the independent refiners and traders. On a global basis the company trades over 5 million barrels of crude oil and oil products per day and revenues in 2012 were $303 billion.

The company has been expanding its operations into new areas. It purchased a Swiss refinery in 2012 and bought a 40% share in the Vivo Energy Kenya fuel distribution business in Africa at the end of last year.

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