WARTIME OIL STORAGE

Evening Star, Issue 23379, 23 September 1939, Page 14

WARTIME OIL STORAGE

PRECAUTIONS IN BRITAIN Oil storage in wartime is seriously engaging the attention of the Government. There is great secrecy about the precautions for the protection of oil and petrol supplies, especially those stored in tanks at various points around the coast. . . ... People who live in the vicinity ot such stores are concerned about possible dangers iu air attacks, especially in those places where they can see no preparation for camouflaging storage tanks. Experiments arc, however, being undertaken by the petroleum section of the Mines Department to find the best means of safeguarding supplies. The experiments are being carried out iu collaboration with other Government departments, particularly Admiralty, Air Ministry, and Ministry of Transport. It is believed in authoritative circles that the Government is faced with a very difficult problem, and one that cannot be solved by any single plan. At Fawley, near Hythe, Southampton, there are a largo number of oil storage tables, which have not yet been camouflaged, in some other places tanks have been camouflaged in the wartime manner, by vari-coloured painting. It is believed that in an emergency these tanks would be emptied and their contents removed to a safer place. Huge underground reservoirs are being constructed beneath chalk hills, at a cost which has been estimated at £5,000,000. When concluded, it is understood, these reservoirs may take the storage now held by numerous tanks along the Thames estuary at Shellhaven, Thamcshaven, and Cornngham.