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Facelift for Trinco oil tank farm
The government wants to exploit the island's advantageous location, being virtually astride the main East-West shipping route across the Indian Ocean from the Suez Canal to the Straits of Malacca. The tank farm could become a money-spinner given the potential storage capacity. The China Bay oil tanks are considered to be the quickest way for private operators to enter the market with the liberalising of the petroleum sector.

Tank Farm - The China Bay petroleum storage facility has long been eyed by the world's major powers. First it was the United States, now it is India. Pix by M.A. Pushpakumara
Tank Farm - The China Bay petroleum storage facility has long been eyed by the world's major powers. First it was the United States, now it is India. Pix by M.A. Pushpakumara

CHINA BAY, TRINCO-MALEE - The scrub jungle covering the low hills on which the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation's oil tank farm is located provides cover, making it difficult to see the tanks from the air. Even at ground level, driving along the winding road that runs through the facility, many of the tanks are hidden from view by the jungle.

After lying disused for decades, the facility that once provided fuel for Royal Navy warships and aircraft that roamed the Indian Ocean during World War 2 is to get a facelift with the lease of part of the tank farm to India's state-run Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).

Of the 101 tanks in the facility 99 remain, two being destroyed after being hit by aircraft. Each tank has a capacity of 12,100 MT and can store furnace oil (bunkers), auto diesel or kerosene.

The jetty to load and unload petroleum product carriers
The jetty to load and unload petroleum product carriers

The government wants to exploit the island's advantageous location, being virtually astride the main East-West shipping route across the Indian Ocean from the Suez Canal to the Straits of Malacca.

The tank farm could become a money-spinner as the potential storage capacity of all the tanks amounts to about a million tonnes. This dwarfs the CPC's existing storage facility and even the new storage complex being built by the Chinese at Muthurajawela, which has a capacity of 200,000 tonnes.

The China Bay oil tanks are considered to be the quickest way for private operators to enter the market with the liberalising of the petroleum sector. The CPC's existing pipeline and storage system is under some strain, being old and in constant and heavy use.

The tank farm covers 850 acres in all - most of it covered by scrub jungle. Elephants and leopards are known to roam the area at night, according to Dominic Corea, the CPC operations manager resident at the site.

The facility, built in the 1930s (there are dates on the pipelines), is divided into a Lower Tank Farm and an Upper Tank Farm. About 15 tanks of the former, near the water, have a concrete outer covering more than a foot thick. The concrete covers were meant to be a protective buffer and prevent or minimise damage from bombs or shellfire during the Second World War. However, the concrete has begun to crack and now poses a danger to maintenance workers.

About two kilometres of pipelines run from the jetty to the last tank in the Upper Tank Farm. The height of the latter allows gravity supply of fuel to ships in the bay below. This was where Indian troops camped during their deployment under the Indo-Lanka peace accord in the late 1980s. A kovil built by Indian troops still stands.

The CPC currently uses only 15 tanks. These store products for distribution in the area, particularly to neighbouring industries such as the Prima flour mill and the Mitsui cement plant, as well as for shipment to the north. Many of the other 85 tanks, though not in use, are in good condition despite their age and neglect. "The tanks are made of one inch think steel," said Corea. "They won't corrode in a hurry." A film of oil coating inside surfaces helped ward off rust. However, repairs may be needed to the pipelines, valves and tap covers.

The remains of one tank that was destroyed when a Royal Ceylon Air Force plane crashed into it in an accident in the early 1960s stand like some archaeological ruin. The steel has long since been removed with only the concrete cover remaining.

In the Upper Tank Farm, the charred, twisted metal of another tank, No. 91, lies almost hidden in a hollow. A sign outside gives details of how the tank was destroyed in a kamikaze attack during the Japanese air raid on Trincomalee at dawn on April 9, 1942.

Four days earlier, Japanese carrier-based aircraft had struck Colombo in what was seen as a prelude to an invasion of the island. It was during the Trincomalee raid that the Japanese sank the HMS Hermes, the first Royal Navy ship to be specially designed as an aircraft carrier. The 10,850 tonne vessel was sunk off Batticaloa as she sailed from Trincomalee. Her escort, the Australian destroyer Vampire, was also sunk. The Japanese fleet attacked Trincomalee harbour and the tank farm but failed to destroy the oil tanks.

The plane that crashed into Tank No 91 that April day is believed to have been hit by anti-aircraft fire. The pilot, Shigenori Watanabe, may have crashed his aircraft deliberately. Two others on board also died. The remains of a skull were found at the site. The fire that broke out lasted for seven days and generated so much heat that the steel melted and rolled over on itself. The rusted wreckage of the engine is all that can be seen of the aircraft.

The Indian Oil Corporation wants to use the China Bay facility to store bulk petroleum products brought by big tankers. These would be transshipped by feeder vessels to various parts of India. With India being one of the largest importers of petroleum in the whole of Asia, petroleum security is a very important issue to New Delhi. India also has military concerns and wants to ensure hostile powers do not get access to Trincomalee.

It was these concerns that led to the inclusion of the oil tank farm in the Indo-Lanka peace accord, signed between former Indian premier Rajiv Gandhi and former Sri Lanka President J. R. Jayewardene, in July 1987. The deal effectively bars other powers from using the tank farm and stipulates that neither Trincomalee nor any other port could be used by foreign powers inimical to India.

Under the pact, the work of restoring and operating the Trincomalee Oil Tank Farm was to be done as a joint venture between India and Sri Lanka.

It is only now, 15 years after that accord was signed, that India is making use of its provisions. In early June, a CPC team signed an agreement with the IOC in New Delhi to hand over 17 fuel tanks at China Bay. Under the new agreement, the Indians will provide their own security for the oil tanks - a provision that is seen as ensuring an Indian presence in Trincomalee. This is seen as a move to ward off any attempts to take control of the town by the Tamil Tigers who consider it the capital of their projected separate state.

The IOC is believed to be thinking of berthing super-tankers at the CPC oil jetty as the bulk movement of petroleum products would be more economical.

The oil jetty has a draught of only 13 metres - not enough to berth big tankers. The CPC now gets a 30,000 tonne shipment once in three months or so - with the product being bought on the spot market and shipped from the Gulf. A team from the IOC, Chennai Port Trust, and Tata Engineering Consultants visited the site in May and are doing a feasibility study to upgrade the jetty.

The IOC is thinking of extending the jetty to accommodate super-tankers - by building what's known as a "virtual jetty" - two mooring buoys and pipeline 100 feet further into the bay where there is very deep water. This would be a relatively cheap option that would not require expensive dredging.

Another option that the IOC might consider is bunkering with the main sea lane in the Bay of Bengal used by ships serving the eastern part of the Indian sub-continent being only 20 miles offshore. Right now, CPC bunkers are so expensive that ships take only enough bunkers to get to the next port - about 25 MT instead of 200-300 MT.

The state-owned Indian Oil Corporation is a Fortune 500 company and is India's largest oil company. It plans to spend over Rs. 200 million in the first stage of its investment to refurbish about 15 tanks and subsequently another three billion rupees to restore the other tanks as well as build modern tanker berthing and pumping facilities.

In the pump house near the oil berth at the Lower Tank Farm, the machinery, although made in the 1920s, still works after having been lovingly restored by Corea, whose hobby is collecting antique cars and motorcycles. The pump house, complete with an oak ceiling, was used to pump oil from ships to the storage tanks as well as from the storage facility into berthed vessels. Cylinders had to be heated with a blowtorch to get the machine started.

Corea recalls how he wrote to the manufacturers, W.H. Allen Sons and Co Ltd, Bedford, and Stothert and Pitt Ltd, Pump Makers, Bath, England, six or seven years ago seeking spares for the engine. "The letter came back because the company no longer exists."


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