DOMINION'S OIL PORT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18772, 28 July 1924, Page 8

DOMINION'S OIL PORT.

WELLINGTON'S ASPIRATIONS. FURTHER LARGE ; STORES. EXTENSION OF ENTERPRISE* I BY XBI.EGEATH. —OWN COJUtESPOitDENT.] i WELLINGTON, Sunday. Wellington claims to have an important role to play in the very near future as a source of supplies of bunker oil fuel, and a packing and distributing centre of refined oils. The Harbour Board is making provision at Thorndon for accommodating vessels discharging case oils from overseas. This., work will cost some £30,000, and it will give closer ; touch by road between the ships unloading and the oil stores on the Hutt Road. It will also relieve the pressure on the wharfage space in the centre of the port when case oils are landed there. Preliminary steps toward a work of great importance to the Dominion in general, and the port and city of Wellington in particular, have been taken by the British Imperial Oil Company (New Zealand) Ltd. An area of over' 25 acres of land has been secured J on the Miramar Flat, upon which tents are being erected for the storage of refined oils, which will be canned, cased, and! distributed from works now to bo built. There will be, storage capacity for five circular tanks, of an aggregate holding capacity of between 6,000,000 and 7,000,000 gallons of oil. The heights of the tanks will be from 30ft. to 40ft.. and their diameters range from 50ft. to 100 ft. The industry will be a totally new one for New Zealand, and when in full running order will give work for upwards of 300 employees, according to the extent of the operations undertaken. . Several contracts in connection with the works have already been lot and ate being carried out, but the main contract necessitating boilermaking, concrete brick and steel work, is yet to be let. It is understood that it will involve an expenditure of some hundreds of thousands of pounds. A new wharf will require to be built north of the existing Miramar Wharf sufficiently large to take the ocean-going tank steamers which will bring the refined oils to the Miramar storage tanks and packing works. These oils will be discharged direct from the ships by pipe lines into the company's storage tanks. It is understood that the company is gratified at the advice and assistance it has received from the Government Advisory Board in connection with the arrangement of the plant from the points of view of defence and public |iafety. The Harbour Board and City Council, recognising no doubt the nationa.l importance of the enterprise, have given support in connection with the wharfage accommodation and roading facilities. The Union Steam Ship Company's fuel oil tank storage capacity at Miramar (near the gasworks) is being augumented by three' tanks, each -having a capacity of 8000 tons, or 24,000 tons in all. The tanks are being made in sections ready for riveting, and the first of them will be arriving in the Corinna from Lyttelton next week. They are being manufactured by Andersons in C'nristchurch. They are all three expected to be ready to receive oil by September next. In enlarging its oil storage at Miramar the Union Company is but conforming to the movement all over the world to use oil instead of coal as fuel. The company's own steamers in the WellingtonLyttelton service—the Maori and Mararoa —as is generally lcnownj are now oiland the Wahine is being fitted up to be run on oil fuel. The; company's fuel oil storage in Wellington at the present time has a capacity of 40,000 tons in two tanks, and of 2CH3O tons in the hulk Adderley. There are two tanks in Sydney with a capacity of 80,000 tons. Besides supplying its own vessels with oil fuel the company provides for the oilburning liners of the New Zealand Shipping and the Federal Shire lineis, and other vessels calling at Wellington or sailing out of Wellington. Its mail steamers in the trans-Pacific trade take in the bulk of their supplies at Vancouver and Honolulu for the CanadianAustralian service, and at San Francisco for the i.San Francisco-Wellington-Sydney service, but they fill up their fuel tanks at the Sydney terminal for the backward ran in each case.