RN Garelochhead (Oil Fuel Depot) | military, oil/fuel storage tank

 military, oil/fuel storage tank, fuel depot

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RN Garelochhead POL (Oil Fuel Depot)

Built in the 1960s to NATO specification, and at the height of the Cold War, the Scottish Fuel Depots situated at Garelochhead (adjacent to the Clyde Naval Base), Loch Striven (near Dunoon), Loch Ewe (in Wester Ross) and Campbeltown provide a mainly maritime fuelling facility to visiting UK & NATO vessels.

Capacity of all 4 sites at the time of original build totalled 702M litres, capable of handling Gas Oil and Aviation fuel. This total has since reduced to 600M litres due to infrastructure reductions at Garelochhead. With the withdrawal particularly of the US Navy from the West Coast of Scotland, the UK-only requirements for fuelling have dropped to today’s forecast prediction of approx 50M. Periodic reviews have continued to confirm that from a military perspective the 4 depots and their location are nonetheless strategically required in spite of the considerable excess capacity held.

The challenge therefore was either to offset MOD’s overheads and liabilities by reducing running costs of each site to a minimum care and maintenance basis or to find some means of exploiting the spare capacity whilst retaining the military capability.

www.mod.uk/NR/rdonlyres/B5810BE6-FE7C-47C7-8B7E-659FF3C...