Sep 09 - MH Bland Complete New Lubricant Oil Tank Farm
MH Bland Marine Services this morning inaugurated their new lubricant oil tank farm at the North Mole.
The new facility is capable of storing 480,000 litres of marine lubricants in 16 tanks. Although lubricants are considered to be among the least noxious and least dangerous substances in the petroleum production chain, the designers and builders have incorporated numerous safety features.
The facility is surrounded by a reinforced concrete bund wall which is capable of containing all of the liquid contents the tanks, a requirement which MH Bland says is “unique to Gibraltar.”
Each tank also has high level alarms to ensure that are no spills whilst pumping and the facility itself has a control system that allows the operator to control all operations remotely.
The tanks also boast active carbon filtering on all the vents “so that there is no possibility of any smells.”
In addition to these features, there is an oil / water separator so that any rainwater collected within the bund wall is not contaminated when it leaves and the loading and unloading bay is surrounded by its own bund wall to protect the surrounding are from spills.
Mr Johnnie Gaggero, MH Bland chariman, explained that since the tragic sullage plant fire in May 2011, the Government, the Port Authority, the Planning Authorities and the operators in the port “have all learned and applied the lessons learnt and what you see before you is a testament to the high standards in planning, operation and Health and Safety that are now prevalent across the industry and throughout the port.”
Mr Gaggero thanked the Deputy Chief Minister Dr Joseph Garcia, Minsters Costa and Cortes, the Environmental Safety Group and everyone in the Port Authority and MH Bland who was involved in the project.
