FACT

FILE

A DAY IN THE LIFE BP CARTERET FUEL TERMINAL NEW JERSEY, US

HARBOUR LIFELocated in the New York Harbour area, BP’s Carteret terminal is a major hub for fuel supply on the US East Coast. Every day, thousands of gallons of gasoline and diesel are transported, blended and stored by the Carteret team and then shipped out to serve the largest metropolitan area in the United States.

The nerve centre of CarteretTerminal manager Jack Cowart begins the busy work day from his office, where he coordinates the activities and operations for the team that works at the sprawling facility.

In the dock houseBP Carteret employees Charlie McGee, standing, and Anthony Williams, work out the details for moving barges in and out of the terminal’s busy dock, which is located on the Arthur Kill. (Arthur Kill is an Anglicization of the Dutch term, achter kill, meaning back channel.)

Bringing in fuelAt dawn, a barge is berthed at the dock, where BP employees manage the daily movement of product to and from the terminal’s storage tanks. The Arthur Kill provides access to barges and ocean-going ships.

MARKET SHARELargest of any

distributor in the region.

REGIONPopulation of the

New Jersey-New York City Metropolitan Area,

about 20 million.

OPERATIONS

24/7 Every day of the year. About 30 employees

and on, any given day, 20 to 60 contractors.

SIZE

168 acres More than three times

the size of BP’s Westlake campus in Houston.

ANNUAL THROUGHPUT

15.8 million barrels.

STORAGE TANKS

16 Above-ground

storage tanks with a combined capacity of

1.2 million barrels.

All tied upTerminal technician John Nitch, front, and operator Jim Viering finish the job of securing mooring lines to a recently arrived barge. The BP terminal can receive product from two separate pipelines, barges, or ships.

Making connectionsAfter docking, Viering, left, and Nitch handle a large hose used to pump product into the storage tank system. BP’s Carteret facility is operated jointly with the adjacent Kinder Morgan terminal.

The tankers keep rolling inShift supervisor Wilson Tubie is a member of the team that coordinates the complex movement of fuel through the facility’s intricate network of pipes, manifolds and storage tanks. Carteret blends different grades of fuel that is sold across the region. Tubie stands by one of the many tanker trucks that take on fuel 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

The fuel heads to marketA truck driver connects a hose to an empty tanker in preparation for loading thousands of gallons of fuel. Tanker drivers must undergo periodic safety training at the BP facility and adhere to a stringent set of procedures, including the wearing of helmets and gloves before being allowed to pull into the fuel rack for loading.

Dockside pipesAfter sunset, another barge is moored and product is pumped through a maze of pipes. The dock- line block valves are colour-coded in order to tell the operators what type of product is in the pipe.

Ongoing inspectionsThe fuel is stored in the terminal’s tank farm. BP employees go over a check-list as part of a regular inspection, in which the tanks are drained, examined, and then certified.