The National Oil Reserves Agency (NORA) has leased a facility known as the Mainland Tank Farm at Tarbert Power Station to provide part of Ireland’s strategic oil. These tanks were originally used to store heavy fuel oil for the power station and had to be decommissioned, cleaned and refurbished to store kerosene (42,500m³) and diesel (127,500m³).The facility is an upper tier Seveso site. The main photograph above shows the first tanker delivering product to the site in November 2012.

The project was handled by Byrne O’Cleirigh Consulting Engineers and PUNCH Consulting Engineers.

The project was delivered in two phases, with the initial contract involving removal of residual heavy fuel oil and cleaning of the tanks together with removal of all pipework. This allowed a detailed inspection of the tanks, which helped frame the contract for the repair and refurbishment of the tanks. In addition to the tanks and new pipework from the jetty, the bunding arrangement required upgrading and both foam and water firefighting systems were provided. A control building and truck loading facility were also constructed. In addition to the normal planning process, the team also led the complex fire, environmental and safety certification processes.

A follow-on contract was undertaken in 2018-2019 to further upgrade the diesel bund floor from impermeable geosynthetic clay liner to impermeable concrete slab.