Calor Gas Northern Ireland has appointed Sytze Nijman as chief executive officer, succeeding Duncan Osborne after seven years in the role, a transition that matters for a market where the majority of Northern Ireland households sit off the mains gas grid and depend on suppliers such as Calor to lead any shift toward lower-carbon fuels. Nijman, who joined Calor as chief operating officer in September 2025, takes over as the business steps up investment in operations, innovation and customer service.

Calor Gas Northern Ireland is a Belfast-headquartered supplier of LPG and BioLPG to homes and businesses across Northern Ireland, wholly owned by Dutch multinational SHV Energy, and reported turnover of £42 million with adjusted EBITDA of £3 million in its most recent accounts.

Nijman previously served as chief operating officer of SunSource, an SHV Energy company, and has held leadership roles at ERIKS in Belgium and Supergasbras in Brazil. He said: "It is a privilege to take on the role of CEO at Calor. Calor has a proud heritage, an exceptional team, and a vital role to play in supporting Northern Ireland's energy transition."

Nijman's appointment continues a pattern already visible elsewhere in Irish and Northern Irish energy leadership this year: promoting an internal operations executive into the top role rather than bringing in an outside hire, prioritising continuity of strategy over a fresh direction.

That continuity matters given the scale of the challenge Calor is managing. Around 76% of Northern Ireland households sit off the mains gas grid, with the majority still relying on heating oil, making off-grid suppliers central to any realistic decarbonisation pathway for rural heating rather than a peripheral player in a grid-dominated system.

Nijman's SHV Energy background positions him to accelerate that shift. The group has been developing renewable liquid gases including BioLPG and rDME, including a joint venture with UGI International, called Dimeta, targeting 50,000 tonnes a year of rDME production in Teesside, giving Calor a pipeline of lower-carbon fuel supply to draw on as it expands in Northern Ireland.

For the sector, the appointment underscores that off-grid decarbonisation in the UK and Ireland is increasingly being led by operators with international LPG and renewable liquid gas experience, rather than treated as a smaller adjunct to electrification-focused energy policy.

Source: Belfast News Letter / agendaNi