Petro-Canada Lubricants Replenishment Optimization Solution by PSA and PSA BDP

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About Petro-Canada Lubricants

Industry

  • Chemicals
  • Oil & Gas/Projects

SERVICES PROVIDED

  • Project Logistics
  • Transportation Services

ABOUT

  • Petro-Canada Lubricants, an Hf Sinclair brand, blends and packages more than 350 different lubricants, specialty fluids and greases that are exported to more than 80 countries on six continents. Petro-Canada Lubricants specializes in products and services proven to maximize equipment performance, productivity and overall savings. From heavy duty engine oils to hydraulic fluids, automatic transmission fluids and gear oils and greases – Petro Canada Lubricants is committed to delivering innovative solutions that deliver value and keep your business moving. Located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, HF Sinclair’s Petro-Canada Lubricants’ base oil refinery is one of the largest in the world with an annual capacity of up to 15,600 bpd.

The Challenge

Petro-Canada Lubricants sought to enhance the reliability and efficiency of its product replenishment process while remaining cost-conscious and environmentally responsible.

Key challenges included:

  • Infrastructure constraints

  • Intermodal congestion at CN Brampton

  • Logistical challenges

  • Transit times

  • Escalating fuel costs

In response, PSA and PSA BDP partnered to leverage their combined expertise in terminal value-added services, transportation and supply chain management to develop an innovative and sustainable solution.

The Solution

Ashcroft Terminal is an inland terminal strategically  located to facilitate this program. With both CPKC and CN Rail Class 1 mainlines passing through its private property, every train entering or departing the Port of Vancouver must pass through Ashcroft Terminal.

PSA and PSA BDP designed a railcar and tank farm program in partnership with Ashcroft Terminal to optimize Petro-Canada Lubricants’ replenishment process.

The solution involved the following steps:

  1. Petro-Canada Lubricants transports a railcar filled with product to Ashcroft Terminal.

  2. The Ashcroft team receives the railcar and transloads the product into dedicated isotanks.

  3. The dedicated isotanks are shunted, grounded, and stored at Ashcroft Terminal.

  4. Petro-Canada Lubricants and/or Pitt Meadows places a purchase order requesting a swap or new product.

  5. Ashcroft Terminal picks up empty isotanks at Pitt Meadows, delivers them to Ashcroft, picks up a full isotank, and returns to Pitt Meadows.

  6. Returned isotanks are inspected, cleaned, and stored at the isotank farm for future use.

Customer Benefits

  • Cost Effectiveness: The use of railcars and isotanks significantly reduced transportation costs compared to traditional truck movements.

  • Improved Product Availability and Lead Times: Storing product closer to the facility reduced lead times and ensured better product availability.

  • Operational Efficiency: Railcar movement proved more efficient than truck transportation, easing the strain on loading racks and reducing driver dependency.

  • Process Optimization: Elimination of empty totes needing to be returned for refilling streamlined the process further.

  • Environmental Impact: The solution reduced the carbon footprint and lowered fuel costs by minimizing truck usage and optimizing rail transport.

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Strategic Location

Through its strategic location along the Pacific Gateway Corridor and its robust infrastructure, Ashcroft Terminal adds a critical layer of resiliency and capacity in support of Canada’s primary industries, including mining and forestry. Ashcroft Terminal, in proximity with major highways and sitting approximately 300 kilometers northeast of Vancouver, is an ideal distribution and supply chain node for its customers and service providers.

Combined Strengths of PSA and PSA BDP

Petro-Canada Lubricants chose PSA and PSA BDP due to their combined strengths and comprehensive service offerings with PSA’s expertise in deep sea, coastal, and inland terminals; rail and intermodal freight solutions; and marine and offshore services, and PSA BDP’s supply chain, transportation, and trade compliance solutions.

The railcar and tank farm program developed by PSA and PSA BDP in collaboration with Ashcroft Terminal successfully addressed Petro-Canada Lubricants’ challenges. This customized solution, paired with excellent customer service, is exemplified by the collaborative work in developing a program, which showcases PSA and PSA BDP’s ability to work together effectively to meet specific needs and achieve shared goals.

Customized Solution with Excellent Customer Service

The nightly inventory report sent from Ashcroft Terminal provides both Petro-Canada Lubricants and Pitt Meadows warehouse a snapshot of the current number of full isotanks at the terminal as well as visibility to all inbound railcar volumes. This is a customized solution that allows Pitt Meadows to effectively utilize warehouse space in the Greater Vancouver Region and create a just-in-time inventory replenishment system. This solution also allows Petro-Canada Lubricants to achieve efficient equipment utilization with its railcars, as product is quickly transloaded from railcar to isotank and the railcar is immediately returned.

In-house trucking services allow Ashcroft Terminal to provide dedicated closed loop services to customers, which allows customers to timely prioritize their product replenishment needs. Ashcroft Terminal also provides quality control in managing data and processes to avoid cross contamination of products. This includes, but is not limited to, working directly with product certificates of analysis and conducting our in-house sampling methods.

Ashcroft Terminal’s coordinator group provides custom reporting solutions on an ad hoc basis. As recently seen during labor disruption planning, Ashcroft Terminal created custom reports to cover a variety of additional products not traditionally supported by the company. This level of reporting visibility will become crucial for key functions such as staging products, truck planning, avoiding unnecessary product waste and carrier equipment optimization in a fluid ever-changing business environment.

About PSA

PSA International (PSA) is a leading global port operator and trusted partner to cargo stakeholders. Currently, PSA’s portfolio comprises over 60 deepsea, rail and inland terminals, across more than 170 locations in 45 countries – including two flagship port operations in Singapore and Belgium. Drawing on the deep expertise and experience from a diverse global team, PSA collaborates with its customers and partners to develop world-class port ecosystems and deliver innovative supply chain solutions to accelerate the shift towards sustainable trade.

About PSA BDP

PSA BDP is a leading provider of globally integrated and port-centric supply chain, transportation, and logistics solutions. It serves a wide range of multinational customers across diverse industry verticals, providing services that include lead logistics (LLP) and fourth party logistics (4PL) solutions; ocean, air, rail and road transportation; barge services; complementary port services; origin management, export freight forwarding; import customs clearance and regulatory compliance; trade compliance, analytics and optimization solutions; contract logistics; project logistics; warehousing, and supply chain visibility and predictive ETA tracking through proprietary Smart technology and applications. Headquartered in Philadelphia, USA, PSA BDP is the brand of BDP International, Inc. BDP International Inc. is a unit of PSA International, a leading global port operator and trusted partner to cargo stakeholders.