Removal & Decommissioning
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Britteco crosses to the Isle of Wight to clean, decommission and remove oil and fuel tanks for boatyards, aerospace sites and farms in Newport, Cowes and Ryde. Every visit includes a Southampton to Cowes vehicle ferry, booked once the job date is fixed.
Island work is shaped by the crossing. Our vacuum tanker, cutting kit and any replacement tank travel on the Red Funnel vehicle ferry from Southampton to Cowes. Waste oil and cut steel come back the same way. We book sailings once the job date is fixed, and we pack for the whole job, because a forgotten part means a return trip across the Solent.
The tanks themselves reflect the island’s industry. Boatbuilders along the Medina at Cowes and East Cowes store marine diesel and gather waste oil from engines and hulls. GKN Aerospace in East Cowes and BAE in Cowes run larger industrial sites with heating plant and backup power, and the ferry operators keep fuel of their own.
Away from the river, farms around the island’s interior keep red diesel for machinery and kerosene for buildings. Only 2.6% of island homes rely on oil heating, so most of the oil storage we deal with is commercial or agricultural.
The crossing adds a step that mainland jobs do not need.
Grouped so one crossing can cover several jobs.
Run out of heating oil or diesel in Isle of Wight?
24/7 emergency heating oil, kerosene and diesel delivery from 100 litres, including nights, weekends and bank holidays.
The Isle of Wight falls within the Environment Agency’s Solent and South Downs area. The Medina and the Caul Bourne drain the island, and the Greensand aquifer below supplies groundwater. On an island, spilled oil has fewer places to go before it reaches a river, the aquifer or the sea.
Salt-laden air is hard on steel. Tanks, bund walls, fill pipes and valves near the coast corrode faster than inland, so inspections here look closely at rust, flaking paint and weeping seams. An ultrasonic thickness test can confirm whether a steel tank has enough wall left to keep in service.
Island businesses storing more than 201 litres of oil come under the Control of Pollution (Oil Storage) (England) Regulations 2001, with a 110% bund and GPP2 guidance on siting. Britteco is OFTEC registered and holds ISO 9001:2015 and CHAS, and the waste paperwork we issue covers the full route back to the mainland.
Cowes is our arrival point, and from there we work right across the island.
We need ferry space for a tanker and support vehicle, and sometimes for a replacement tank. Booking ahead secures the sailing and lets us bring everything in one trip.
Yes, and it makes sense. If neighbouring businesses or a group of sites need cleaning or removal, we can schedule them on the same visit.
We clean and de-gas it, then cold cut it into sections that fit our vehicles. The steel crosses back to the mainland on the return ferry for recycling.
Usually water in the tank, which lets diesel bug grow and produce sludge. Cleaning the tank and polishing or replacing the fuel removes the cause, not just the symptom.
Our focus is commercial, but we can replace or install a domestic oil tank when we are already over on the island. More on home heating oil tanks.
The nearest mainland areas we cover.
Share the details of your island tank and we will plan the crossing with the job. The earlier you call, the easier the ferry booking.
