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Facelift
for Trinco oil tank farm
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 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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