Dave Blakemore of ConocoPhillips Ltd, has been appointed President of the UK Petroleum Industry Association, the trade association representing the main oil refiners and marketers in the UK.

He succeeds the outgoing President Ken Rivers, who is Manufacturing Director of Shell UK Oil Products, at Stanlow.

Commenting on his appointment, Dave said, “I look forward to building upon the excellent work that UKPIA has been doing under Ken’s Presidency and looking at some of the strategic issues facing the downstream oil industry. The industry has developed a first-rate refining and supply infrastructure over the years, as a well as  investing heavily to produce cleaner fuels and meet tighter environmental standards. It is vital for the security of the UK’s energy supplies that the downstream oil sector remains in a healthy state to meet the changing needs of the transport fuels market.”

Notes to editors:

UKPIA is the trade association representing the oil refining and marketing companies operating in the UK. UKPIA members operate all of the UK’s nine crude oil refineries, supplying about 90% of the UK’s inland demand for petroleum products, and between them own approximately 2,700 of the UK’s 10,350 service stations.

Dave Blakemore graduated from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology in 1976 with a first class degree in Chemical Engineering. Since then, Dave has worked for ConocoPhillips. He is responsible for deploying Six Sigma to help drive business improvement in their European and Asia Pacific Refining and Marketing businesses.

Between 1976 and 1985, Dave worked in the UK, Germany and USA in Refining operations, planning and strategy roles. During the merger between Conoco and DuPont, Dave assisted on business development opportunities between the two companies. These included carbon fibre technology development and the commercialisation of membrane technology for hydrogen recovery.

Dave has also worked in marketing, his last two posts being as Managing Director of a Joint Venture Marketing company in Spain and then as General Manager of the ConocoPhillips Limited UK Marketing businesses.

He is married and enjoys driving sports cars and walking as hobbies.