Decommissioning of fuel terminal for large forecourt operator

Our response

Due to the area being hazardous, CompEx electricians first ensured that the site was safe, and free of live cables or other hazards. The first phase was to remove all the residual fuel from the site, and carry out all the tank cleaning with confined space certified operators.

Each tank had different fuels, including petrol, diesel and kerosene, and were capable of holding around five million litres of product. We drained all the tanks, took the fuel off site and then did a man-entry clean on each tank to ensure they were gas-free and ready for demolition.

The second phase was to dismantle the pipework and structures.  There was still about 20,000 litres of fuel in the pipes that needed to be removed before this could happen. In order to do this, all the valves were dropped and each area was sucked out, once the fuel was removed, we used gas monitoring wands to ensure there was no gas left inside. This was done a few weeks before the demolition started to allow any residual vapours to vent away.

In phase three we broke up the concrete and excavated the site. We also undertook ground testing and sampling to make sure there was no contamination.

The fourth phase was to remove all the pipe work from under the jetty, grade the site, remove the remaining buildings, carry out final soil testing before handing the site back to the client.