Buncefield oil depot is operated by Hertfordshire Oil Storage Ltd (HOSL) and officially known as the Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal. It is an oil depot located on the edge of Hemel Hempstead to the north of London in the United Kingdom (UK). In December 2005 a series of explosions on the site caused the largest fire in Europe since World War II.
The site was built in 1968 by George Wimpey for BP and Shell-Mex. [1] A pipeline was constructed to link two Shell refineries in Stanlow in the North West of England at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire, and Shell Haven on the Thames Estuary at Stanford-le-Hope in Thurrock. The pipeline allowed "white oil" products, such as petrol and diesel, to be transported cheaply and efficiently across the country.
Along with Buncefield, a number of other pipeline-fed installations were built at the same time. These depots were always shared by the oil companies who have benefited together from the lower costs compared with other transportation methods. However, when they opened, such depots, including Buncefield, sometimes became difficult to manage from an industrial relations perspective. Drivers and other operatives from different oil companies, but members of the same Trades Union, usually the Transport and General Workers Union, were able to coordinate their industrial action more effectively by being on the same site as one another. In 1990 a further pipeline was completed, linking the site to the Lindsey Oil Refinery in Humberside. [2]
Before the fire, which devastated over a quarter of the site, the terminal was the fifth largest oil depot in the UK with pipelines to Humberside, Merseyside and Heathrow and Gatwick airports radiating from it. [3] The terminal operator is Total, which owns 60% of the depot, with Texaco owning the remaining 40%, though BP and Shell also make use of its facilities. As the fifth largest oil depot in the UK, it had a capacity of approximately 60 million Imperial gallons (273 million litres) of fuel, although it was not always at capacity. It previously filled 400 tanker lorries every day and handled around 2.37 million tonnes of oil products every year. [2]
In March 2008 BP announced it will soon be restarting some operations at the site with the storage and supply of aviation fuel to Heathrow. BP must comply with more than 50 safety conditions including refurbished tanks and an improved alarm system. [4]
The site consists of a northern and a southern portion, with the southern being used by BP and the northern portion being divided into 3 sectors; HOSL West, the BPA area, and HOSL East. Texaco, Total and Shell use HOSL West and HOSL East, while the BPA area is occupied by facilities of the British Pipeline Agency (BPA), mostly for aviation fuel. HOSL West was the main site in the northern portion of HOSL, and was used for storage of a variety of fuels excluding aviation fuel and kerosene, which are stored at BPA. The fire destroyed most of HOSL West and the BPA area. [5]
Hemel Hempstead is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England. It is 24 miles (39 km) northwest of London, and is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500.
The Buncefield fire was a major fire at an oil storage facility that started at 06:01 UTC on Sunday 11 December 2005 at the Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal, located near the M1 motorway, Hemel Hempstead, in Hertfordshire, England. The terminal was the fifth largest oil-products storage depot in the United Kingdom, with a capacity of about 60 million Imperial gallons of fuel. The terminal is owned by Total UK Limited (60%) and Texaco (40%).
The United Kingdom petroleum pipeline network is principally made up of three pipelines systems: the former Government Pipeline and Storage System (GPSS) now the Exolum Pipeline System; the Esso pipelines, and the United Kingdom Oil Pipelines (UKOP) and associated pipelines. There are also several other lines including the Fina line built around 1990 that runs from North Lincolnshire to the Buncefield oil depot near Hemel Hempstead.
An oil terminal 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. 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.
The Exolum Pipeline System, formerly the CLH Pipeline System and the Government Pipelines and Storage System (GPSS), is a fuel pipeline system in the United Kingdom. Originally constructed by the government to supply fuel to airfields in World War II, it is now owned by Exolum.
Stanlow Refinery is an oil refinery owned by Essar Energy in Ellesmere Port, North West England. Until 2011 it was owned by Shell UK. The refinery is situated on the south bank of the Manchester Ship Canal, which is used to transport seaborne oil for refining and chemicals for Essar and Shell.
British Pipeline Agency Ltd (BPA) is a joint venture, established in 1969, between BP Oil UK and Shell UK. The company operates the UK oil pipeline network of oil pipelines which transport petroleum products around the UK.
The utility infrastructure of London, England comprises a range of services and facilities that support and enable the functioning of London as a world city. Infrastructure includes facilities associated with products and materials that are consumed such as electricity, gas, water, heating and liquid fuels; materials that are produced such as sewage and solid waste; and facilities that enable communication and connectivity – telecommunications.
The Oil and Pipelines Agency (OPA) is a statutory corporation of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in the United Kingdom. Its current role is to operate six coastal Oil Fuel Depots on behalf of the MoD. The OPA was also previously responsible for the management of the Government Pipelines and Storage System (GPSS), until its sale in 2015. The OPA is the MoD's professional expert on bulk fuel storage and transportation by pipeline.
Rhoscrowther was a village, ecclesiastical parish and civil parish in Pembrokeshire, Wales on the south shore of the Milford Haven Waterway. The placename is Welsh and perhaps means "crwth-player's moor". It is part of the community of Angle.
Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service (HFRS) is the statutory fire and rescue service for the county of Hertfordshire, England. HFRS covers an area of 1,514 square miles (3,920 km2) and a population of 1.19 million.
Woodhall Farm is a neighbourhood on the northern tip of Hemel Hempstead in the county of Hertfordshire. It was built on the former Brocks Fireworks site.
Coryton Refinery was an oil refinery in Essex, England, on the estuary of the River Thames 28 miles (45 km) from central London, between Shell Haven Creek and Hole Haven Creek, which separates Canvey Island from the mainland.
Fawley Refinery is an oil refinery located at Fawley, Hampshire, England. The refinery is owned by Esso Petroleum Company Limited, a subsidiary of Exxon Mobil Corporation, which acquired the site in 1925. Situated on Southampton Water, it was rebuilt and extended in 1951 and is now the largest oil refinery in the United Kingdom, and one of the most complex refineries in Europe. With a capacity of 270,000 barrels (43,000 m3) per day, Fawley provides 20 percent of the UK's refinery capacity. An estimated 1000 people are employed at the site.
Grangemouth Refinery is a mature oil refinery complex located on the Firth of Forth in Grangemouth, Scotland, currently operated by Petroineos.
The BPRefinery (Kent) was an oil refinery on the Isle of Grain in Kent. It was commissioned in 1953 and had a maximum processing capacity of 11 million tonnes of crude oil per year. It was decommissioned in August 1982.
The Exolum Group is a Spanish multinational company offering services for transportation and storage of oil products. The Exolum Group is made up of Exolum Corporation, S.A., Exolum Aviación, S.A., Terminales Químicos, S.A. (Terquimsa), CLH Pipeline System Ltd (CLH-PS) in the United Kingdom, CLH Aviation Ireland in Ireland, Orpic Logistics Company L.L.C. (OLC) in Oman, CLH Panamá and CLH Aviación Ecuador. The company was formed from what used to be (CAMPSA). CLH is the result of the 1992 spin-off of the commercial assets of the former CAMPSA, which was carried out as the culmination of the process of deregulating the oil sector following the passing of new European Community laws that ended the oil monopoly. The Exolum Group's main activity consists of transporting oil products – essentially gasoline, diesels, fuel oils and aviation fuels – from oil refineries to their storage facilities that the company has in Spain, The Netherlands and The UK where its customers' tank trucks load these products and deliver them to the final consumers.CLH holds logistic service contracts for the use of its facilities with most of the operators in these countries and competes with more than a dozen logistics companies that provide storage and transportation services to the Spanish market.
Events from 2005 in England
Puma Energy is a Swiss multinational mid- and downstream oil company, majority-owned by Singapore-based French company Trafigura.
Oil terminals are key facilities for the import, export, storage, blending, transfer and distribution of oil and petroleum products. Many terminals are located at coastal sites, such as Teesside and the lower Thames, to allow the offloading and loading of coastal shipping. Inland terminals, located around major cities, such as Birmingham and Manchester, facilitate the distribution of products to local industrial and commercial users. Many terminals have road tanker loading equipment for local distribution of products such as petrol, diesel, and heating oil. The terminals are connected through a network of underground pipelines to enable the transfer of oil and refined products across Britain.
