Eastham Oil Terminal
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Eastham Oil Terminal is situated close to the small town of Eastham on the Wirral Peninsula, beside the Manchester Ship Canal. It was commissioned in 1954 close to the Queen Elizabeth II Dock and is a storage and export facility for oil products refined at Stanlow Refinery,[1] to which it is connected by pipeline.[2] The site is currently operated by Nynas.[3]
Construction of the Eastham oil terminal began in 1949 in association with the Queen Elizabeth II Dock.[4] These facilities were built near Eastham locks at entrance of the Manchester Ship Canal on the River Mersey. The new facilities at Eastham provided berthing for large tankers unable to access the ship canal. Pipelines were constructed from Stanlow Oil Refinery to the oil terminal and the dock. The construction cost of the terminal £7 million.[5] The facilities became operational in 1954.
Tanker sizes increased rapidly during the 1950s, and as early as 1960 it was recognised that the Eastham terminal was limited as the water there was not deep enough for the 65,000 ton tankers that were then becoming commonplace.[5] This led to the construction of the Tranmere oil terminal further downstream from where crude oil feedstock for Stanlow refinery is offloaded.
Other facilities
Other companies built processing and storage facilities at Eastham. Paktank built a bulk liquid tank farm (53°18'51.5"N 2°57'11.2"W) to the west of the oil terminal.[6] In 1975 Tate & Lyle had a 50% stake in the terminal.[6] The terminal was later owned and operated by NuStar Terminals Eastham Limited. In 2018 Inter Terminals acquired NuStar's European storage terminal business.[7] This facility is currently (2020) operated by Inter Terminals. There are 157 tanks with a total storage capacity of 325,198 m3. There are four jetties for vessels and the terminal receives from, and delivers to, sea and road.[8]
In 2015 there was a proposal by Hydrodec Re-refining (UK) Limited to construct a hazardous waste recovery facility at Power House Road, Eastham comprising a waste oil re-refining plant together with associated development.[9][10] This has not been developed.
