Removal & Decommissioning
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Britteco cleans diesel, gas oil and heating oil tanks for depots, factories, farms and port sites across Lancashire, from Preston and Leyland to Lancaster, Heysham and the Fylde. We also remove and decommission redundant tanks, working from our Harrogate base in North Yorkshire.
Lancashire’s stored oil is mostly working fuel rather than home heating: only 1.8% of households in the county council area rely on oil alone. The big tanks feed plant, fleets and standby power. BAE Systems employs around 12,000 people between Warton, where Typhoons go through final assembly, and Samlesbury. Leyland Trucks builds DAF lorries in Leyland, and Springfields at Salwick has made nuclear fuel since 1946.
On the coast, Heysham Port moves mainly roll-on roll-off freight, including Isle of Man sailings, beside the Heysham nuclear stations. Hauliers, bus and coach operators and distribution yards along the M6 and M65 run fleet refuelling tanks and diesel for yard shunters, and quarry plant around Heidelberg Materials’ Ribblesdale cement works at Clitheroe burns gas oil.
Inland it is grass country. Grassland and rough grazing cover 83.8% of the county’s farmed area, against 48.6% for England, and dairy and livestock run from the Fylde to the Forest of Bowland, and West Lancashire’s best soils carry most of its vegetable and glasshouse growing. A farm diesel tank that is topped up but never cleaned is where we find the worst water and diesel bug.
Cleaning is the job Lancashire businesses book most, and each one follows these stages.
Cleaning heads the list here, followed by fuel care and removals.
Run out of heating oil or diesel in Lancashire?
24/7 emergency heating oil, kerosene and diesel delivery from 100 litres, including nights, weekends and bank holidays.
Lancashire sits in the Environment Agency’s Cumbria and Lancashire area. Storm Desmond showed what flooding does to power: in December 2015 the Lancaster substation went under water and 61,000 homes lost electricity until mobile generators were brought in. Weeks later Storm Eva flooded about 250 households around Whalley and Ribchester. Standby generators need clean fuel in a tank above the likely flood line.
The Sherwood Sandstone beneath the county is a principal aquifer. Under the Fylde it lies too deep to use, but east of the Woodsfold Fault it supplies public and private water, so diesel lost from a split tank or an overflowing bund has somewhere to go.
Firms storing over 201 litres of oil must meet England’s 2001 oil storage regulations: a bund holding 110% of the tank and protected fittings, with GPP2 on siting. After cleaning, removal or decommissioning we hand over consignment or waste transfer notes and the matching degassing or disposal certificate.
Our crews work throughout the county, including Blackpool and Blackburn.
Britteco cleans commercial diesel, gas oil and heating oil tanks across Lancashire, including Preston, Lancaster, Chorley and Burnley. Engineers bring a vacuum tanker and holding tank from Harrogate, so fuel worth keeping goes back in afterwards.
Slimy filters, engines that hunt or cut out, and a clear layer at the bottom of a dip sample are the usual signs. Water sinks below the fuel, rusts steel and lets diesel bug grow where the two meet. We draw it off, clean the tank and find where it gets in.
No interval is fixed in law, but a tank emptied and refilled daily by lorries or buses collects sludge and water faster than one used occasionally. Many operators book a clean when filter changes become frequent, or every few years alongside a bund check.
Capacity, the depth of sludge, whether someone must go inside, and what happens to the fuel all change the job. Photos, the capacity and a dip reading let us quote before booking.
An empty tank still holds vapour and residue, and buyers and insurers will expect it dealt with. Above-ground tanks are usually cleaned, de-gassed and taken away; underground ones can be foam filled where digging would undermine a building. Either way you get a certificate showing the work was done properly.
Our northern crews also cover these neighbouring areas.
Tell us the capacity, the fuel and the symptoms you are seeing, ideally with a photo of a dip sample. We will set out the method and book a slot that keeps your vehicles or plant running.
