Hundreds of thousands of people in the UK depend on our quality products - whether it's fuel at a service station, heating oil for a local school or 100,000 litres of jet fuel to speed flights across the Atlantic, we have to ensure that our fuels are available when and where our customers want them 365 days of the year

Every day, we transport over 45 million litres of clean products - petrol, diesel, jet fuel and gas oils - from our refinery in the most efficient, safe and environmentally friendly way: by underground pipeline.

We operate nearly 1,200 kilometres of pipeline in a network that connects to six of our distribution terminals at key locations around the country and to facilities at Heathrow, Gatwick and Birmingham airports.  

Most of the pipelines carry a number of different products. They are fed into the pipeline one at a time in a predetermined sequence. Pipeline operations are controlled using a sophisticated computer and information collection system that keeps track of the interfaces between products so that they can be separated on arrival at the terminal.  

Most orders for fuel are processed by our European Customer Service Centre which is based in the UK. Experienced customer service staff, computer-aided route planning and other initiatives such as night-shift deliveries, all ensure high levels of efficiency and customer service.

The final link in the delivery system, by road from distribution terminal to customer, is carried out by a contractor company that has a fleet of around 135 Esso-branded trucks.

Around 90 per cent of our clean products are transported by underground pipeline. The remainder accounts for transport to coastal distribution terminals that are supplied by sea.

Other products - for example, marine fuels or lubricant basestocks - that leave the refinery to go directly to customers or to other ExxonMobil locations are also transported mainly by sea.