Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal
Coordinates: 51°45′49.33″N 0°25′26.33″W / 51.7637028°N 0.4239806°W
Buncefield oil depot is operated by Hertfordshire Oil Storage Ltd (HOSL) and officially known as the Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal. It is an oil depot located on the edge of Hemel Hempstead to the north of London in the United Kingdom (UK). In December 2005 there was a series of explosions on the site which caused the largest fire in Europe since World War II.
Some local residents remember that the site was used during the second World War to provide fuel for the bombers at RAF Bovingdon.
The expanded site was opened in 1968 after a pipeline was constructed to link two Shell refineries in Stanlow in the North West of England at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire, and Shell Haven on the Thames Estuary at Stanford-le-Hope in Thurrock. The pipeline allowed "white oil" products, such as petrol and diesel, to be transported cheaply and efficiently across the country. Along with Buncefield, a number of other pipeline-fed installations were built at the same time. These depots were always shared by the oil companies who have benefited together from the lower costs compared with other transportation methods. However, when they opened, such depots, including Buncefield, sometimes became difficult to manage from an industrial relations perspective. Drivers and other operatives from different oil companies, but members of the same Trades Union, usually the Transport and General Workers Union, were able to coordinate their industrial action more effectively by being on the same site as one another. In 1990 a further pipeline was completed, linking the site to the Lindsey Oil Refinery in Humberside.
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