N E W S R E L E A S E
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February 21, 2005
Furmanite Introduces Independent Audit Service to Boost Customers’ Fugitive Emission Program Efficiency and Maximize Asset Uptime
Tasha Honeycutt and Ryan Richard Lead FEIP Independent Third-Party Audit Team
Houston, TX - February 21, 2005 - Furmanite, a worldwide specialty services company and a wholly owned subsidiary of Xanser Corporation (NYSE:XNR), today announced the introduction of its Fugitive Emissions Audit service for the North American petrochemical and refinery industries. This service – part of Furmanite’s comprehensive Fugitive Emissions Inspection Program (FEIP) – is designed to verify and validate a customer’s programs, standards and guidelines. Through this independent third-party Fugitive Emissions Audit service, we help our customers assure that their plant meets all government and operational regulations, as well as maintains peak operational efficiency, productivity and profitability.
“For 75 years, Furmanite has partnered with the petrochemical and refinery industries to help maximize their asset uptime,” said Gary Gardner, president of Furmanite’s North American operations. “Our audit service is a natural extension of our existing technical expertise and our ongoing commitment to our customers.”
Facilities not in compliance with the strict fugitive emissions regulations can face penalties that include severe fines and criminal and civil investigations. Recently released U.S. Environmental Protection Agency statistics indicate that inspections and evaluations to determine compliance increased 11 percent. In 2004, 21,000 inspections were performed, up from 18,880 in 2003.
Tasha Honeycutt, FEIP Service Line Manager, and Ryan Richard, FEIP Quality Assurance Manager, oversee Furmanite’s FEIP Independent Third-party Audit service. Both have significant experience conducting audits for companies in need of increasing fugitive emissions program efficiency, as well as verifying and validating compliancy with consent decrees and governmental regulations.
“Our new audit service is unique, because we offer an independent third-party assessment and can then design customized solutions to address specific facility issues discovered during the audit process,” said Tasha Honeycutt, Furmanite FEIP Service Line Manager. “Because we are a full-service industrial maintenance and technology company, we put expert engineers and technicians into our customers’ facilities. Our team has the experience and resources to identify issues and design solutions that companies focused only on auditing simply do not have.”
According to Ryan Richard, Furmanite FEIP Quality Assurance Manager, an additional benefit of the FEIP Independent Third-Party Audit is the timeliness of the reports: “We can provide quick turn around on the audit reports, with the ability, in most cases, to submit a report within one week of the service instead of several weeks to a month that audit reports typically are delivered.”
In addition to HRVOC compliance and refinery consent decrees, the FEIP Independent Third-party Audit is extremely customizable – allowing petrochemical and refinery facilities to audit any operational area to determine if internal and external standards are being met. Specifically, Furmanite incorporates checklists used as the