Oil terminal

An oil terminal (also called a tank farm, tankfarm, oil

installation or oil depot) is an industrial facility for the
storage of oil, petroleum and petrochemical products, and
from which these products are transported to end users or
other storage facilities.[1] An oil terminal typically has a
variety of above or below ground tankage; facilities for
inter-tank transfer; pumping facilities; loading gantries for
filling road tankers or barges; ship loading/unloading
equipment at marine terminals; and pipeline
connections.[1]
GPS Amsterdam Terminal, as seen from an
airplane. It facilitates storage and blending of
History gasoline, oil, and bio fuels.

Originally, open pits and cubic reservoirs were used for

industrial oil storage.

The vertical cylindrical steel reservoir structure was pioneered by

Russian engineer Vladimir Shukhov during his work for Branobel
oil company. He published an article "Mechanical structures in oil
industry" ("Механические сооружения нефтяной
промышленности") in 1883, mathematically proving that
cylindrical shape would require the least amount of steel, modelling
structural stresses specific to oil storage. Shukhov also developed
construction methods, including tables that allowed to calculate
required amount of steel and components depending on the
reservoir size and type. By 1890, 130 vertical cylindrical reservoirs
using Shukhov design were built in Russia.[2]

Location
Oil terminals may be located close to, or be part of, oil refineries; or An oil depot in Kowloon, Hong Kong
be located in coastal locations where marine tankers can discharge around the mid-1980s. The depot
or load cargo.[3] Some terminals are connected to pipelines from was redeveloped into a residential
which they draw or discharge their products. Terminals can also be area Laguna City in the late 80s and
served by rail, barge and road tanker (sometimes known as early 90s.
"bridging"). Oil terminals are also located near cities from which
road tankers transport products to petrol stations or other domestic,
commercial or industrial users.[3]

Facilities
In most oil terminals there is no processing or other product
transformation on site. The products from a refinery which are
stored in the terminal are in their final form suitable for delivery to
customers.[1] Blending of products may be undertaken, and
additives may be injected into products, but there is usually no
manufacturing plant on site. Modern terminals have a high degree
of site automation.[4]

Marine oil terminals have jetties to provide a deep water mooring Tank farm at McMurdo Station,
for tankers. Jetties have loading/unloading arms for transferring Antarctica
cargo to/from ship to shore. Facilities for vapor recovery may be
provided.[5]

Some oil terminals receive crude oil production from offshore

installations.[6] Crude oil received by pipeline may have been
‘spiked’ with natural gas liquids (NGL), and is known as live
crude.[7] Such oil needs to be processed or stabilised to remove the
lighter fractions such as ethane, propane and butane to produce a
dead or stabilised crude that is suitable for storage and transport.[8]
Such oil terminals may include processing facilities to treat the oil
to achieve an oil Reid vapor pressure (RVP) of 10 to 12 psi (70 to Historical oil tank using steel rivets
[9]
82 kPa). The process facilities include oil heaters to warm the oil to attach wall metal plates
[6]
which then routed to separator vessels. In the separators the
lighter fractions flash off from the oil and are further processed to
separate them into their individual components. The now stabilised oil can be routed to storage and then
sold or sent for further processing.[6][9]

The storage tanks at an oil terminal may include fixed roof tanks, internal floating roof tanks[10] and
external floating roof tanks.[1] Floating roof tanks are generally used for more volatile products to reduce
evaporation loss. Fixed roof tanks which have a vapor space above the product and which breathes in or
out as the product is removed or the tank is filled. Some tank may be fitted with internal heating coils using
hot water or steam to keep the contents warm. This reduces the viscosity of the product to ease transfer and
pumping. Terminals may also have ‘Horton spheres’ which are used to store liquefied petroleum gases such
as propane and butane (see left foreground of the above Kowloon oil depot).

Standards
The design, construction, operation and maintenance of an oil terminal must be in accordance with local,
national, regional and international codes, standards, and legal and statutory requirements. Relevant
standards include:

Safety Guidelines and Good Industry Practices for Oil Terminals, United Nations Economic
Commission for Europe (ECE), 2013.[11]
Environmental, Health, and Safety Guidelines for Crude Oil and Petroleum Product
Terminals, World Bank Group (April 2007).[12]
Design, Construction, Operation, Maintenance, and Inspection of Terminal and Tank
Facilities, American Petroleum Institute, API STD 2610.[13]
Guidance for Oil Terminal Operators, International Maritime Organization (IMO) International
Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code (2003).[14]
Tank Farm Guidelines for the Chemical Industry, Basle Chemical Industry (BCI, 2009).[15]
OECD Guidance Concerning Chemical Safety in Port Areas (OCDE/GD(96)39),
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, 1996).[16]
Design Code for Aboveground Atmospheric Storage Tanks, American Petroleum Institute,
API 650.[17]
Overfill Protection for Storage Tanks in Petroleum Facilities, American Petroleum Institute,
API Recommended Practice 2350, 4th edition.[18]
Prevention Of Tank Bottom Leakage - A Guide For The Design And Repair Of Foundations
And Bottoms Of Vertical, Cylindrical, Steel Storage Tanks, EEMUA 183:2011, Engineering
Equipment and Materials Users' Association (EEMUA, 2011).[19]
Tank Inspection, Repair, Alteration, and Reconstruction, American Petroleum Institute, API
standard 653, 4th edition, April 2009.[20]
Functional safety - Safety instrumented systems for the process industry sector, International
Society of Automation (September 2004).[4]
Process Safety Management of Highly Hazardous Chemicals standard, 29 CFR 1910.119,
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA, February 1992).[21]
Safety Guidelines and Good Practices for Pipelines, ECE/CP.TEIA/2006/11, United Nations
Economic Commission for Europe (December 2008).[22]

Health, safety and environment

Maintaining health, safety and environment (HSE) requires
operators of a depot to ensure that products are safely stored
and handled. There must be no leakages (etc.) which could
damage the soil or the water table.[19]

Fire protection is a primary consideration, especially for the

more flammable products such as petrol (gasoline) and Jet A1
aviation fuel.[23]

Incidents Massive fire at Buncefield Oil Depot, UK

December 2005
The Buncefield incident occurred in December 2005. A petrol
tank overflowed and spilt petrol down the outside of the tank
which created a flammable fuel air mixture. This exploded and damaged and set fire to adjoining tanks and
burnt for several days destroying much of the terminal.[24]

Ownership
The ownership of oil depots falls into three main categories:

Single oil company ownership. When one company owns and operates a depot on its own
behalf.
Joint or consortium ownership, where two or more companies own a depot together and
share its operating costs.
Independent ownership, where a depot is owned not by an oil company but by a separate
business which charges oil companies (and others) a fee to store and handle products. The
Royal Vopak from the Netherlands is the largest independent terminal operator with 80
terminals in 30 countries.[25]
In all cases the owners may also provide "hospitality" or "pick up rights" at the facility to other companies.

Airports

Most airports also have their own dedicated oil depots (usually
called "fuel farms") where aviation fuel (Jet A or 100LL) is stored
prior to being discharged into aircraft fuel tanks. Fuel is transported
from the depot to the aircraft either by road tanker or via a hydrant
system.

See also
Oil production plant Aircraft refueller at Vancouver airport
Oil-storage trade
Onshore (hydrocarbon)
Oil terminals in India
Oil terminals in the United Kingdom

References
1. "Oil Tanking - Tank storage and tank terminals" (https://www.oiltanking.com/en/news-info/glo
ssary/details/term/tank-storage-tank-terminals.html). oiltanking.com. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
2. "Стальное наследие инженера Шухова" (https://web.archive.org/web/20210412222214/ht
tps://gazprom-neft.ru/press-center/sibneft-online/archive/2014-march/1104828/) [Steel
legacy of engineer Shukhov]. Siberian oil (Сибирская нефть) (109). March 2014. Archived
from the original (https://gazprom-neft.ru/press-center/sibneft-online/archive/2014-march/110
4828/) on 2021-04-12.
3. "Refineries, terminals and storage (UK)" (https://fueloilnews.co.uk/fuel-storage-and-terminal
s/). Fueloilnews. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
4. "Functional safety - Safety instrumented systems for the process industry sector" (https://ww
w.hse.gov.uk/eci/functional.htm#:~:text=BS%20EN%2061511%2C%20Functional%20safet
y,be%20managed%20throughout%20that%20lifecycle.). HSE. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
5. Rahmanian, Nejat; Aqar, Dhia Y.; Bin Dainure, Muhammad F.; Mujtaba, Iqbal M. (2018).
"Process simulation and assessment of crude oil stabilization unit". Asia-Pacific Journal of
Chemical Engineering. 13 (4): e2219. doi:10.1002/apj.2219 (https://doi.org/10.1002%2Fapj.
2219). hdl:10454/16518 (https://hdl.handle.net/10454%2F16518). S2CID 103139454 (http
s://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:103139454).
6. "Technical Information: processing storage and export" (https://www.ineos.com/businesses/i
neos-fps/technical/technical-information/). ineos.com. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
7. "Crude Oil Sweetening and Stabilization" (https://www.arab-oil-naturalgas.com/crude-oil-sw
eetening/). Arab oil and natural gas. 9 February 2017. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
8. "Petropedia - Dead oil" (https://www.petropedia.com/definition/1044/dead-oil#:~:text=Dead%
20Oil%20is%20crude%20oil,compare%20to%20other%20petroleum%20products.).
petropedia. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
9. Stewart, Maurice; Arnold, Ken (January 2009). "Chapter 2 - Crude Stabilization" (https://ww
w.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780750689700000025). Chapter 2 Crude
stabilisation. Science Direct. Gulf Professional. pp. 81–106. doi:10.1016/B978-0-7506-8970-
0.00002-5 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2FB978-0-7506-8970-0.00002-5).
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10. "Internal floating roof tanks" (https://www.engineersedge.com/hydraulic/tank_internal_floatin
g_roofs.htm). engineers edge. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
11. "Safety Guidelines and Good Industry Practices for Oil Terminals" (https://www.unece.org/file
admin/DAM/env/documents/2013/TEIA/Odesa_Sept_2013/Safety_Guidelines_for_OT_FIN
AL_for_translation.pdf) (PDF). unece. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
12. "Environmental, Health, and Safety Guidelines for Crude Oil and Petroleum Product
Terminals" (https://www.ifc.org/wps/wcm/connect/83036b30-f957-4e0e-a662-2df991dcdfa0/
Final%2B-%2BCrude%2BOil%2Band%2BPetroleum%2BProduct%2BTerminals.pdf?MOD=
AJPERES&CVID=jqevC2Q&id=1323162170625) (PDF). World Bank. Retrieved 25 July
2020.
13. "API Std 2610" (https://www.apiwebstore.org/publications/item.cgi?c177e1e2-5ac1-4faf-9f26
-176435e06721). API. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
14. "Guidance for Oil Terminal Operators" (https://www.ocimf.org/media/8922/48ac1e9a-12e2-4
5b5-bfb0-84437535de77.pdf) (PDF). ocimf. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
15. "Tank Farm Guidelines for the Chemical Industry" (https://docplayer.net/27100128-Trci-tank-f
arm-guidelines-for-the-chemical-industry-publisher-bci-basle-chemical-industry.html).
16. "OECD Guidance Concerning Chemical Safety in Port Areas" (http://www.oecd.org/officialdo
cuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?doclanguage=en&cote=ocde/gd(96)39). oecd.
Retrieved 25 July 2020.
17. "American Petroleum Institute, API 650" (https://www.api.org/~/media/Files/Publications/Wh
ats%20New/650%20e12%20PA.pdf) (PDF). API. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
18. "API Recommended Practice 2350" (https://standards.globalspec.com/std/1524745/API%20
STD%202350). standards.globalspec. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
19. "Prevention Of Tank Bottom Leakage - A Guide For The Design And Repair Of Foundations
And Bottoms Of Vertical, Cylindrical, Steel Storage Tanks" (https://www.eemua.org/Products/
Publications/Digital/EEMUA-Publication-183.aspx). eemua. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
20. "API standard 653" (https://www.api.org/~/media/files/publications/whats%20new/653_e5%2
0pa.pdf) (PDF). API. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
21. "Process Safety Management of Highly Hazardous Chemicals standard" (https://www.osha.
gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1910/1910.119). osha. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
22. "Safety Guidelines and Good Practices for Pipelines" (http://www.unece.org/environmental-p
olicy/conventions/industrial-accidents/publications/industrial-accidents/official-publications/2
015/safety-guidelines-and-good-practices-for-pipelines/docs.html). unece. Retrieved 25 July
2020.
23. "Storage tank protection" (https://angusfire.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Tank-Protection-Broch
ure-Pages.pdf) (PDF). Angus fire. Retrieved 25 July 2020.
24. "Buncefield report" (https://www.hse.gov.uk/comah/buncefield/index.htm). HSE. Retrieved
25 July 2020.
25. "Vopak Tank Terminals" (https://web.archive.org/web/20070728221514/http://www.vopak.co
m/business_segments/storage/142_tank_terminal.php). Archived from the original (http://ww
w.vopak.com/business_segments/storage/142_tank_terminal.php) on 2007-07-28.
Retrieved 2011-03-24.

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