Kieran’s Our City, Our Town Article,
Cork Independent, 6 February 2014
“Technical Memories (Part 70) – Whitegate Oil Ventures”
Following on from the use of oil in the 1950s in the ESB Marina Power station, the petroleum industry in Ireland at that time was such a prodigious business that it was the most costly import and the greatest source of customs duty except tobacco. The Leitrim Observer reported on 12 January 1957 that some 262 million gallons were imported at a cost of £13,667,000 (against approx £10 ½ million each for coal, motor-cars and wheat-maize). As an offset the government accepted the joint proposal of Shell-Mex and B.P. Ltd., Caltex and Esso to erect and to operate a new £12million refinery at Whitegate (Cork), which was officially opened on 22 September 1959. Its annual capacity was initially proposed to supply Ireland’s total petroleum needs.
The situation in Ireland was hardly dissimilar from the rest of Western Europe, which, because of thinning coal seams and manpower shortage, persisting since the end of the World War, was forced to turn to oil to bridge the gap between the growing demand and the capacity of native resources to provide it. Ireland’s demand for electricity grew faster than the country’s water power and turf resources could produce it. Industrial production was expanding. The era of cheap and plentiful and supplies available were insufficient to meet all demands. Oil was the only alternative.
In 1938 the last pre war year for which supplies were available without limitation, Ireland consumed 73 million gallons of petroleum products. In 1955 consumption had risen to 262 million gallons. The growth of automotive transportation alone did not account for this increase in demand. Motor fuel, in 1938, represented 58 per cent of all petroleum products imported. In 1955 it represented only 31 per cent of imports. Much of the increase in Irish demand comes from new uses. In addition to industrial furnaces and the generation of electricity, demand for power on Ireland’s farms has been rising steadily over the past ten years. Irish agriculture, by American or British standards, was not highly mechanised. Nevertheless Ireland operated 27,000 agricultural tractors in 1955 compared with 700 in 1938. These 27,000 tractors use nearly 20 million gallons of fuel in a year. Consumption of both high octane and jet type aviation fuel was growing steadily each year and the modernisation and efficiency of our railway system was now regarded as depending on how fast it could be converted to oil fuel. Many industrial processes utilised the less well-known petroleum products – commodities varying as widely as town gas, church candles, motor tyres and paint. Petroleum had become an essential component of the economic life of the country and a stoppage of supplies would have brought transport and most of the country’s manufacturing industry to a complete stop.
On 29 March 1957, the Irish Independent reported that Dr J DeCourcy Ireland, Joint Honorary Secretary of the Maritime Institute of Ireland, in an introductory address at a film show given by the institute at the Cumberland Hotel, Dublin, commented on the importance of Whitegate Oil Refinery:
“The creation of the oil refinery at Whitegate, Co Cork could become as great a turning point in Irish maritime history as the foundation of Irish Shipping itself. The Oil Refinery could make Cork what it should be from its unique geographic position, the maritime hub of the Eastern Atlantic, with a complex of dry docks, free port facilities, up-to-date cargo and passenger arrangements, such as could ensure it the same rapid rise to eminence among the world’s ports that had in recent years been achieved by unknown ports like Gyndia [Poland], Vizagapatam [India] and Dakar [Senegal]”.
Eight months later the Southern Star on 23 November 1957 reported that on the refinery site the main activity was on Corkbeg Island where John Paul and Co, the Dublin contractors were engaged clearing the site and road building in preparation for Wimpey & Co to commence operations. Most of the bulldozers were concentrating on the clearing work and the new road was practically completed. Equipment for the sinking of piles for the seaward jetties was moving into position. A feature of the Whitegate traffic was the long trailer loads of steel piping being moved onto the main refinery site. The large pipes were to be used to pipe the crude oil from the tankers up to the refinery and the finished products down.
A few days later on 29 November, the Southern Star reported over 2,200 were working on the building of the new oil refinery at Whitegate. In addition the Refinery Company had already recruited a staff of 120 for the permanent running of the refinery, many of whom were being trained abroad but 43 of which were graduates of the National University. A large number of the 50 storage tanks being built by Tank Erectors Ltd. were now complete, each with a capacity of 23,000 tons. Work was going ahead on the jetty head and the dolphins for the berthing of the tankers. Piping had been laid along the jetty for incoming and outgoing oil. Four of the five towers were towed by sea from Liverpool had also been put in place.
To be continued…
Caption:
727a. Aerial view of Whitegate Oil Refinery (source: Cork City Library)