Page 38 - FINAL Phillips 66 50 Year Book

during the winter months. Once on land, the pipe passes under roads,
railways and rivers over 14 miles to the refinery.

When construction began on the 40 million gallon tank farm, ground
water was discovered six inches below the surface so all tank
foundations (there were four, each with a diameter of 170 feet) had to
be piled. The project cost £7 million in all.

The January 1971 edition of Conoco’s newsletter reported: “Designed to
enable offloading of crude oil from giant tankers which cannot berth in
the shallow waters of the area, the monobuoy first came into operation
of the foggy afternoon of January 13.

“The operation was planned for completion that morning but the adverse
weather conditions and state of the tide forced a postponement of
three hours. By 3pm, however, all was ready. The Dubai (the company’s
30,000 ton tanker) was nudged and coaxed alongside the buoy by the
workboat Spurn Haven and the small Dutch tug Jacoba.

Above: Original Tetney pipeline being laid.
“The Spurn Haven then recovered the 700 foot serpent-like floating
hose through which the oil would pass from the Dubai to the buoy. This
was hoisted aboard the tanker and connected to the flow valves on
board. And, before 5pm, the first cargo of crude oil ever to be brought
into Britain via an offshore monobuoy was flowing landwards.

“Though the Tetney facility is Britain’s first offshore buoy, Conoco
already have monobuoys off the coast of Libya and Dubai; which means
that company vessels can load and unload without going into harbour
at each end of their voyages.”

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