Removal & Decommissioning
Oil Tank Removal & Cold CuttingUnderground Tank RemovalsTank DecommissioningDecommissioning & Foam FillingPlant & Machinery RemovalWaste Oil DisposalInstall, Clean & Maintain
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Britteco handles diesel tank removal, oil tank cleaning and fuel tank decommissioning for quarries, estates and commercial sites from Guildford and Woking to Reigate and Staines-upon-Thames. Our engineers travel in from the Banbury base, so Surrey visits are booked to a date rather than dropped in on.
Surrey is one of the most gas-connected counties in England. The 2021 Census put 78.1% of households on mains gas alone and just 1.3% on oil, so heating oil is a small part of the picture. The fuel tanks that matter here sit on working sites: red diesel and white diesel for plant, gas oil for standby generators, and kerosene in the odd estate building beyond the gas main.
Sand and gravel quarries around Spelthorne, Runnymede, Godstone and Nutfield run loaders, screens and pumps from bulk tanks and bowsers that take hard daily use. Fairoaks and Redhill Aerodrome keep fuel of their own, and corporate head offices around Woking, Leatherhead and Weybridge often have a generator day tank feeding backup power that nobody looks at until the lights go out.
Equestrian yards and country estates, particularly in Waverley where 3.2% of homes rely on oil, tend to hide older steel or single-skin plastic tanks behind barns and stables. These are the tanks owners most often want drained, cut up and taken away, or swapped for a bunded unit that meets the rules.
Most Surrey jobs follow four stages, adjusted to the site’s access and the fuel it holds.
Listed in the order Surrey enquiries usually arrive.
Run out of heating oil or diesel in Surrey?
24/7 emergency heating oil, kerosene and diesel delivery from 100 litres, including nights, weekends and bank holidays.
Surrey sits across two Environment Agency areas. The west and north fall under the Thames area, which covers the Wey, the Lower Mole and the Lower Greensand aquifer around Godalming. Dorking and the North Downs chalk belong to the Kent and South London area. Both rocks are permeable, so diesel escaping from a weeping tank can reach groundwater quickly.
Businesses storing more than 201 litres of oil must follow the Control of Pollution (Oil Storage) (England) Regulations 2001. In practice that means a bund or secondary containment holding at least 110% of the tank’s capacity, sound pipework and regular checks. GPP2 guidance sets out good practice on siting, which counts for a lot beside rivers or on gravel workings.
Every Surrey job ends with the paperwork the regulator and your insurer expect: Waste Transfer or Consignment Notes for removed oil and sludge, and a Certificate of Disposal or degassing certificate for the tank itself. Britteco is OFTEC registered and works to ISO 9001:2015 and CHAS standards.
From the quarries of Spelthorne and Runnymede to the estates of Waverley, we cover the whole county.
Yes. We plan quarry work around the site induction, haul routes and production times so loaders and screens can keep running. Large industrial oil tanks are drained, de-gassed and cold cut into sections that fit our vehicles.
Often not without treatment. Diesel left standing picks up water, and that water feeds diesel bug, which forms slime and blocks filters just as the generator starts. We can test the fuel, polish it, or pump it out and clean the tank.
Removal is usually the cleaner long-term answer because nothing is left behind. Decommissioning in place, with foam, sand or concrete fill, suits buried tanks under buildings or slabs where digging out would do more harm than leaving them.
A Waste Transfer or Consignment Note covering the oil and sludge we took away, plus a degassing certificate or Certificate of Disposal. File these with your site records, as buyers and insurers regularly ask for them.
Commercial sites are our focus, but we can replace or install a domestic oil tank for a Surrey home off the gas network. See oil tank replacement for homeowners.
Neighbouring pages, each with its own local detail.
Send us photos of the tank and the route in, and we will come back with a plan and dates. Calling early makes it easier to fit a Surrey visit around your site.
