Community Information From BP

April 2008

In line with our policy of keeping the local community informed of any upcoming work at the Terminal, we would like to tell you about three developments taking place there over the next few months.

CRUDE OIL TANK MAINTENANCE

The five large crude oil tanks situated at the bottom of the site near Southampton Water were built in 1990 to take the full production of oil from the Wytch Farm Oilfield at Poole Dorset.  For safety and plant integrity reasons we carry out regular maintenance on these tanks, but this year we have to do additional work which will involve the use of pumps. This work will take place over a period of three days and once started must continue without interruption. Unfortunately due to ship movements and the necessity to maintain the flow of incoming crude oil by pipeline we cannot give a precise date for the start of this work but it will be over the next few weeks. We do not anticipate a noise nuisance because we have specified the use of special pumps with a low noise output.

STRETCHED TANK

We are having to increase the size of one of our storage tanks dedicated to BP Ultimate Super Unleaded petrol. The Tank, Number 84, is situated smack in the middle of the Terminal and we have been granted planning permission to enlarge it. We are going to do this by jacking the tank up and adding an extended section to the bottom. This means we will add five meters to the tank height but even at this height it will be no taller than other tanks on the site. This work will start immediately and will last throughout the summer. Overall, we do not anticipate any noise nuisance to our neighbours because much of the work will be testing, but there will be one day when we have to cut metal but we will do our utmost to “do it quietly”. We have been granted permission to work weekends on the project but at the moment we don’t think this will be necessary. Working times will be Monday-Friday 8.0am-6.0pm and Saturday 8.0pm to 1.0pm.

BIOFUEL TANKS

As most of you are aware, there is an increasing world-wide use of biofuels in petrol and diesel. These fuels are produced from wheat, grain, sugar cane and other plant life. The Government had now laid down regulations which require varying levels of biofuels to be included in transport fuels starting with 5 percent in 2010 and rising to 10 percent by 2020. This means that at Hamble we will have to build extra storage capacity to comply with these regulations. This week we will be applying for planning permission to build three small storage tanks on a vacant area , previously used for storage, in the centre of the site, close to the Tank 84 mentioned earlier. It is obviously far too early to give you any more information about this work but we will do so later this year.

OUR HOTLINE

Hamble Oil Terminal has built up strong bonds with the local community over the years and we will continue to foster this relationship in the years to come. It is with this in mind that we will do everything in our power to lessen the impact of the work outlined. We do not believe local residents will be disturbed by what we have described but if anyone has a complaint we have decided to set up a COMMUNITY HOTLINE which can be used 24 hours a day. The phone number is:

02380 745715

In addition to this you can contact our PR Adviser David Dawes on 02380 456028 (home 01483 769590) who will be pleased to assist.